"Petersen grounds her study in a wide array of literature about topics including the ethics of mediating suffering, masculinity, gender, class, melodrama, liberalism, the public sphere, imagined communities, reason, and emotion. . . . Graduate students interested in cultural studies, gender and queer studies, and/or advocacy may find Petersen's book useful."
~JHISTORY H-Net
"Petersen makes use of an intriguing thesis and presents an insightful source for journalism and broadcasting students. July 2011"
~Library Journal
"Petersen offers an impressive reading of media discourses illustrating the value of public feelings and how they can become animating forces in the production of civic action."
~Great Plains Quarterly
"...engrossing and expertly-argued reading. Petersen gracefully blends theoretical investigations with narrative recountings of the two cases."
~Beth Loffreda, author of Losing Matt Shepard: Live and Politics in the Aftermath of Anti-Gay Murder
"[Petersen] breaks new ground by showing how national and local media coverage interact and how popular emotion and public legislation work together."
~John D. Peters, author of Courting the Abyss: Free Speech and the Liberal Tradition
