"The novel is more than just a good read, as Elizabeth Englehardt explains in her excellent introduction. Rather, well-drawn characters help to avoid some of the stereotyping of Appalachians prevalent in most of the literature of Cooke's day. In addition, the novel is a historically significant text: although Cooke's novels have long been out of print and few scholars have examined her writing, in her lifetime she was both popular and critically acclaimed, and her writing covers nearly fifty years in American literary history. Furthermore, this novel both anticipates many current feminist issues and gives us a chance to see how personal feminism can shape a writer's work. Finally, the novel deserves our attention because it examines industrialization and changing roles in Appalachian society at the turn of the century. The Power and the Glory is an important publishing event for scholars of Appalachian fiction. It should serve as an exemplum of early twentieth-century novels that examine the effect industrialization had on communities, individuals, and, in the this case, on women and children."–Journal of Appalachian Studies