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Religion, Race, and the Making of Confederate Kentucky, 1830–1880 by Luke E. Harlow (review)

paintings, and reminiscences about the antislavery martyr from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Pelletier explains how Brown’s “loving qualities” were eventually divorced from his violent actions in the popular imagination (172). He concludes his book with a short coda on the demise of apocalyptic sentimentalism during the Civil War and recent “flare-ups” in the work of conservative pundit Glenn Beck, climatologist James Hansen, and novelist Cormac McCarthy (184). Apocalyptic Sentimentalism is not for the faint of heart. Pelletier provides only the most skeletal introductions to his key texts and brief biographies of his key figures, an approach that may frustrate readers who are not well versed in nineteenth-century literary history and criticism. And Pelletier’s writing, at times, leaves something to be desired. Each chapter opens with a workmanlike, first-person description of the arguments that will follow. In other moments, his prose is turgid. Despite these flaws, Apocalyptic Sentimentalism is an impressive work of scholarship. Pelletier offers a fresh interpretation of not just several canonical antislavery writers but also sentimental literature in general. Those who are able to fill in the gaps and overlook the book’s stylistic shortcomings will be amply rewarded. Ethan J. Kytle