An insightful and enjoyable survey of the people and ideas which divided the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America in the 1930s. Through careful research and a captivating style, Longfield studies in depth the main characters of the Fundamentalist/Modernist controversy in the Presbyterian Church.

Sympathetic to both sides, he shows how relaxing theological standards began to blunt the church's ability to speak to its members and society. Particularly of interest to Cumberland Presbyterian readers is the effect of the influx of a large number of former Cumberland Presbyterian clergy after the partial reunion of 1906. Where the Presbyterian Church had been in a delicate balance, the partial merger added hundreds of primarily liberal ministers, shattering the balance and beginning a seemingly irrevocable turn to the left.