Ronald L. Numbers offers a detailed and significant biography of Ellen G. White, the fabled yet often misunderstood prophet and founder of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. Though a member of the church himself, Numbers manages to offer a richly objective history of White, allowing for both criticism and praise of the the founder's contribution to American religion and health reform. In this definitive biography of White and her work, Numbers lays out his central thesis: that the visions and concepts of White were part of a broader nineteenth-century health reform movement. Numbers uncovers the parallels and similarities between White's health message and other noted reformers, particularly James C. Jackson, Sylvester Graham, Horace Mann, and L.B. Coles. While Numbers is able to find and analyze the striking similarities between White and her health reform contemporaries, his goal is never to tear apart the inherent messages of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. Rather, he seeks to "understand" White as a product of the times, a prominent figure in the nineteenth century health reform movement that revolutionized the way in which American lived and behaved. While the works of Graham and others have largely been relegated to historical footnotes (indeed, the most an American history undergrad will usually get on the subject is a brief retelling of Graham's invention of the eponymous Graham Cracker) White's contributions have been far more lasting. In her version of the nineteenth century health reform message there emerged the makings of a an entire religious body, one with adherents and branches spanning the globe. It was White who took that message (however similar it may have been to that of other health-conscious writers) and gave a practical and spiritual bent. And in doing so, White ensured that the health message of the nineteenth century flourished well into the present.