Did advocates of the social gospel carry the burden of humanitarian aid during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries? Were evangelicals content merely to maintain the status quo and avoid ameliorating the plight of the needy?

"Focusing upon the period from the Civil War to about 1920, this study attempts to portray the sizeable body of Christians whose extensive welfare activities and concern sprang similarly from their passion for evangelism and personal holiness," writes the author. He meticulously traces the urban welfare activities of the Salvation Army, the Volunteers of America, the Christian Missionary and Alliance, multiple rescue missions and homes, and the religious journal 'Christian Herald'.

Author - Norris and Beverly Magnuson

"The content of this [book], as well as its format, is remarkable. It will be invaluable for future researchers.... For future evangelical historians and sociologists, this will be compulsory reading."

Laurence E. Porter, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society

"Successfully challenges the progressive historians. [Magnuson] demonstrates that evangelicals pursued major programs of social welfare and reform during the Gilded Age and that they often out social gospelled the Social Gospellers in their attitudes toward the oppressed and in calls for social reconstruction."

Joel A. Carpenter, Christian Scholar's Review