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- Coming August 11, 2026
A Spectacular Inheritance
What I Kept and What I Left Behind
By Margaret Eastman Smith
A “groundbreaking” account of one woman’s experience coming of age inside Moral Re-Armament, previously known as the Oxford Group, the evangelical conflict resolution organization that spawned both Alcoholics Anonymous and Up With People. Margaret grew up entirely in the movement, worked for it until she was thirty-five, and later became a college professor of international peacemaking.
Amid vivid memories of the unusual life she shared with the community, and her evolving view of it, she winds her own story of finding herself and the values she could rely on, even as she steps away.
Publishes:
August 11, 2026
Publisher:
Sibylline Press
Format:
Paperback, 424 pages
Preview The Book
Foreword
Robert Fox, MSW, LICSW
New England Institute of Existential Therapy
Prologue
About Sibylline Press
Sibylline Press is a woman-owned publishing company that is proud to publish the brilliant work of women authors over fifty.
What Readers Are Saying
“. . . a testament to the perennial search for a balance between self-determination and deep connection.”
Daniel P. McKanan
Director of Harvard Divinity School’s Program for the Evolution of Spirituality
...her deep reflections on human rights, on apology and forgiveness, on feminism and hierarchy, on living with integrity in a complex world... make this a gem of a book for book clubs and community groups, but also for policy circles and campaign retreats."
Tamra Pearson d'Estrée
Ph.D., Professor of Conflict Resolution, University of Denver
“. . . gives new depth and great insight into AA’s roots . . . the most honest and self-reflective account of Moral Rearmament (previously the Oxford Group) that I have ever read.”
Linda A. Mercadante
author of Victims and Sinners: Spiritual Roots of Addiction
"...groundbreaking... she avoids both the anger of being a victim and the uncritical acceptance characteristic of accounts by the second and third generation."
Marguerite Van Die
author of An Evangelical Mind
"I highly recommend A Spectacular Inheritance to anyone interested in the intertwined histories of MRA and Up With People..."
Lee Storey
Director/Producer, Smile 'Til it Hurts: The Up With People Story
"...a master class in combining personal with cultural investigation."
David Belden
former managing editor, Tikkun Magazine
"...an important book, with precious insights, understanding and historical perceptions. Important for all those still traveling, still searching to make sense and meaning in their lives."
Andrew Stallybrass
Emeritus Director of Caux Books
"Emotionally raw, intelligently written, and hard to put down."
Lynn Colwell
Artist
"...a remarkably subtle and generous account of Moral Re-Armament, a movement that provoked either fervent devotion or intense criticism."
Daniel Sack
author of Moral Re-Armament: The Reinventions of an American Religious Movement
"[H]ow do you find yourself when you have been raised in a movement that left little room for doubt, desire, or independent pursuits?"
Grace France
Birmingham City University, historian of Moral Re-Armament
"She shows us what it means to be authentic."
Eileen Babbitt
Professor of Conflict Resolution Practice, The Fletcher School at Tufts University
"Beautifully constructed and full of hard-earned insights about life..."
Rajmohan Gandhi
Journalist, India and USA
"...captures the experience of a life spent waiting for life to begin, only to arrive at the quiet, profound recognition that life was unfolding all along."
Sara MacKian (she/her)
Senior Lecturer in Health & Wellbeing, The Open University
"...reveals the inward life of the MRA."
David Bebbington
Emeritus Professor of History, University of Stirling, Scotland
"People questioning premises of the evangelical church will find her insights particularly compelling."
Jessica Pratezina
MA, Scholar of alternative religious movements, Toronto
"...she sets a spectacular example for anyone reckoning with an inheritance that's both robbed them of roads not taken and made them who they are."
Helen Zuman
author of Mating in Captivity: A Memoir
"...a story of liberation and rediscovery..."
Stephen Biscoe
Journalist
Family Photos
1951
Margaret with her parents, Stuart and Polly Ann Smith, Hollywood
1954
Margaret with Mary Jean Carlisle, Mackinac Island
1955
Margaret and her parents, with her aunt and uncle George and Louisa Eastman, gather to farewell George Sr. and Polly (behind) when they depart for the Statemen's Mission
1957
Margaret's grandfather, George Eastman, playing golf with Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi of Japan in Los Angeles
1958
Margaret and her parents, Mackinac Island
1993
Mary Jean (Carlisle) Freebury visits Margaret in Cambridge, Massachusetts
1999
Margaret's parents, Stuart and Polly Ann Smith, at Margaret's Ph.D. graduation
2005
Margaret addresses a group at American University
2021
Margaret and her husband, Philip Tyndale-Biscoe