Larry Eskridge began his book, God’s Forever Family: The Jesus People Movement in America, as a dissertation under David Bebbington; however, it soon became the leading scholarly book about the Jesus People. The Jesus People Movement started in the Bay Area in 1967 and became a prominent fixture of the 1960s and 1970s in the United States. This movement was an appeal to the hippie culture and evangelical youth, which eventually became, what Eskridge argues, one of the most important religious movements of the 20th century. Eskridge begins his book by discussing the creation of this movement in San Francisco. He talks about the large hippie population and how the movement began as a way to interact with this culture while maintaining