text: Overall, I found this book disappointing.  In its defense, its basic thesis of the movement of Jewish American Orthodoxy towards the `right' (more closed and intensely religious) is interesting, and I am sure accurate, and Heilman's analysis of its evolution is insightful and well-researched.  However, I was extremely bothered by the lack of any attempt to portray Hareidi society through the prism of its own value system, or in fact any attempt to understand their values at all. Heilman accepts his own world view as absolute and obvious to the reader, and in this context denigrates a society with an entirely different set of goals and aspirations. Examples of this include his assumption of the primacy of feminism and the worth of secular culture.  Hareidi society has its own worldview which, although too complex to elaborate on here, has valid and very real reasons for its hierarchy of values, reasons which Heilman completely disparages or ignores.  (For an example of a book that is not written by a religious author, yet is able to appreciate Hareidim from their own perspective try "Real Jews" by Noah Efron).  In general, I found his view of religion as a mere sociological construct (i.e. a defensive reaction to the Holocaust) to be grossly insensitive to the Hareidi intense religious belief founded on thousands of years of tradition. 
  The latter half of the book I found a pathetic attempt to draw conclusions from insignificant pieces of information.  For example the juxtaposition of poster A condemning something to a poster advertising B implies that poster A is condemning B as well.  Or two posters (put out by the same company) advertising two different types of music indicates that the community is embattled over the appropriateness of one type of music.  
  In conclusion, although I eagerly awaited this book and found a fraction of it interesting and intelligent, my overall impression is negative due to the authors biased approach and manipulative use of insignificant information.
  