By reconstructing the religious crusade to achieve prohibition in Texas, Making the Bible Belt reveals how southern religious leaders overcame longstanding anticlerical traditions, built a formidable social movement, and, in the course of outlawing liquor, injected religion irreversibly into public life. Joseph L. Locke's eye-opening monograph shatters erroneous and too-long-held assumptions regarding the role of religion in Texas political history....A gifted storyteller, Locke introduces us to a wide range of colorful figures and reminds readers of the little-known Texas connections of major Prohibitionist leaders....This nuanced volume should be read closely not just by historians of American religion, but political scientists and sociologists as well.