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REVIEWS 451 Rolling Away the Stone Mary Baker Eddy’s Challenge to Materialism By Stephen Gottschalk (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006. Pp. xii, 484. Illustrations, chronology, notes, bib- liography, index. $35.00.) Rolling Away the Stone is a well- this organizational scheme might oth- researched, elegantly written, sym- erwise cause the reader. The narrative pathetic biography of Mary Baker is at its finest in chapter two’s com- Eddy (1821-1910), the founder of parison of Eddy with vocal critic Christian Science. One of several Mark Twain—revealing surprising biographies of Eddy, this is the first similarities. Twain, like Eddy, grap- book-length study to draw exten- pled with the problem of evil, resist- sively on the recently opened collec- ing Calvinist understandings of the tions of the Mary Baker Eddy Library sources and meanings of sickness, but in Boston. The perspective of her reaching conclusions that diverged newest biographer, the late Stephen sharply from Eddy’s. According Gottschalk, is explicitly that of an to Gottschalk, Eddy’s “overriding insider to Christian Science. The tone interest was to establish the Christ- is admiring and at points defensive, ian identity of Christian Science” but the narrative is at every point (p. 141), and Gottschalk apparently richly textured and engaging, not shares this agenda. The biography only shedding light on Eddy and emphasizes Eddy’s devotion to the Christian Science, but also present- Bible and prayer. Likewise, it refutes ing fresh readings of other influential the claim of previous biographers that Americans and illuminating broader Eddy stole her ideas from mind-cure cultural trends of historical and cur- healer Phineas Parkhurst Quimby rent significance. (1802-1866). This point is important Gottschalk’s book focuses on the not only as a defense of Eddy’s integri- last two decades of Eddy’s life, from ty and originality, but more funda- 1889 to 1910, a period during which mentally as a defense of the Eddy, although in her seventies and movement’s Christian identity. In eighties, engaged in some of her most Gottschalk’s own words, it refutes the influential work to establish and charge that “Christian Science, even defend Christian Science. The chap- if clothed in Christian language, ters are organized more topically than belonged to the orbit of mesmerism chronologically, and the narrative fre- rather than Christianity” (p. 273). quently jumps backward and forward The narrative accepts Eddy’s argu- in time to pick up on particular ment that the truth of Christian Sci- themes; a timeline at the back of the ence is evidenced by its “fruitage” book alleviates the frustration that (p. 323)—the testimonies of physical 452 INDIANA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY and spiritual healing that many indi- alongside such alternatives as home- viduals avowedly experienced, often opathy, mesmerism, chiropractic, and while reading Science and Health divine healing; and again in the late (1875). Such healing claims are not, twentieth century, with the blossom- according to Gottschalk, “easily dis- ing of practices such as yoga, Thera- missed” (p. 332), but the book pres- peutic Touch, and charismatic ents no evidence beyond the sheer Christianity. By presenting a clear por- number and variety of such claims. trait of Eddy’s teachings, Gottschalk’s Although some of the volume’s work can provide a springboard for biographical details might be of more nuanced comparisons and con- greater interest to Christian Scientists trasts with such alternatives, which than others, a broad spectrum of read- have tended to be conflated in many ers should take interest in its crucial discussions. In sum, this is a beauti- conceptual argument that Christian fully written, provocative biography Science issued a fundamental chal- that a variety of readers will find valu- lenge to the materialism that has able. explicitly dominated biomedicine and implicitly shaped American Chris- CANDY GUNTHER BROWN, associate tianity. This theme of antimaterialism professor of religious studies at Indi- helps us to understand a range of ana University, Bloomington, is the healing alternatives that proliferated author of The Word in the World: Evan- at two historical moments when nat- gelical Writing, Publishing, and Read- uralistic paradigms seemed in the ing in America, 1789-1880 (2004), and ascendancy: the late nineteenth cen- is writing a cultural history of spiri- tury, when Christian Science emerged tual healing in America. Copperheads The Rise and Fall of Lincoln’s Opponents in the North By Jennifer L. Weber (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Pp. xi, 286. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $28.00.) Carl von Clausewitz, the German war coln feared that a third column of theorist, claimed that a nation’s suc- antiwar Democrats (Copperheads) cess in waging war required a coor- would undermine the Union war dinated effort between its people, its effort; he called this internal threat leaders, and its army (p. 10). If one “the fire in the rear.” In Copperheads: leg of this triad falters, the structure The Rise and Fall of Lincoln’s Oppo- will topple. The Civil War proved no nents in the North, Jennifer L. Weber exception to this theory. Indeed, Lin- persuasively argues that “the fire in.

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