Emma Anderson has done something awe-inspiring: she has breathed life into the evocative story of the North American martyrs and their legacy. What's most exciting is that she has accomplished this with both the hand of a great storyteller and the mind of a brilliant scholar.
-- Joseph Boyden, author of The Orenda
This beautifully written study of how the Jesuit martyrs have been remembered and reinvented in the popular Catholic imagination is without rival in terms of its scope, ambition, and achievement. I enthusiastically recommend it.
-- Kathleen Sprows Cummings, author of New Women of the Old Faith: Gender and American Catholicism in the Progressive Era
The eight men who became North America's first canonized saints have been imagined and appropriated in many ways by both Euro-Americans and Amerindians on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border. With vivid style and powerful insight, Anderson explores the history and changing interpretations of the martyrs' deaths, which, three centuries later, continue to serve as powerful cultural and spiritual symbols.
-- Dominique Deslandres, author of Croire et faire croire: Les missions francaises au XVIIe siecle
In a lively and engaging style, Anderson recreates the story of Jesuit missionaries killed in the seventeenth century. More importantly, she uncovers the different meanings given to their deaths by American Catholics, Canadian nationalists, and Native people across the centuries. A fascinating book.
-- Allan Greer, author of Mohawk Saint: Catherine Tekakwitha and the Jesuits
This richly imagined book is a delight to read. In prose of exquisite, often sensuous detail and striking immediacy, Anderson offers a compelling history that opens up important questions in the study of religion. Her account of Brébeuf's torture and death is a tour-de-force, while her treatment of the interactions between Native Americans and Europeans is psychologically acute and emotionally resonant.
-- Robert A. Orsi, author of Between Heaven and Earth: The Religious Worlds People Make and the Scholars Who Study Them
This beautifully written book about memory will be widely praised. It respectfully analyzes the practices and worldviews of both aboriginal peoples and European missionaries. It combines historical and ethnographic methods to craft a story that ranges from the seventeenth century to the present. And, at a time when many scholars are trumpeting comparative and transnational studies, it provides a model for those who want to write religious history across national borders.
-- Thomas A. Tweed, author of Crossing and Dwelling: A Theory of Religion
[A] fascinating book.
-- Nathan M. Greenfield Times Literary Supplement
[An] innovative history that crosses disciplines.
-- R. Berleant-Schiller Choice
[Anderson] succeeds in illuminating the martyrs’ long afterlife, sketching along the way some major contours of Canadian history while keeping American and French contexts in mind as well…As a comparative and multinational work, this book is exemplary…From the first page to the last, this beautifully written, smartly crafted, and assiduously researched book models the kind of empathetic, honest, and nuanced approach that characterizes history at its best.
-- Danae Jacobson Books & Culture
Anderson has masterfully traced the evolution of the martyrs’ ‘myth’ to the present day…It is a fascinating read.
-- Michael Stogre America
Emma Anderson has written a big book packed with fascinating information and insights…The Death and Afterlife of the North American Martyrs offers a rich and valuable study of the construction of memory as evidenced in this ‘ever-evolving, ever-contested cult.’
-- Jodi Bilinkoff American Historical Review