The Page 99 Test

I just came across this website after being asked to contribute. The premise is clever, and there are a lot prominent contributors who make it interesting. The English litterateur Ford Madox Ford once said,"Open the book to page ninety-nine, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you." Taking off from that quote, the Page 99 Test asks writers to apply the maxim to their own work. What does page 99 say about the work as a whole? The site rewards some exploration, but here are a few memorable contributions that I've found: Daniel Rodgers on the Age of Fracture, Pauline Maier on Ratification, Daniel K. Williams on God's Own Party, Darren Dochuk on From Bible Belt to Sun Belt, and Samuel Moyn on The Last Utopia. My contribution on The Myth of American Religious Freedom is here.