McPherson was the most flamboyant, controversial minister in the U.S. between the world wars, building a megachurch, a mass media empire, and a political career to resurrect what she saw as America's Christian heritage. Sutton's study reveals a trail-blazing pioneer, marking the beginning of Pentecostalism's advance to mainstream American culture.

Sutton's definitive study of McPherson reveals the woman whose life marked the beginning of Pentecostalism's advance from the margins of Protestantism, whose integration of politics with faith set precedents for the religious right, and whose celebrity status came to define modern evangelicalism.