Through his research, Cuneo highlights important figures, such as Malachi Martin, Frank and Ida B. Hammond, and Peter Blatty, as well topics such as the difference between Catholic exorcism and Deliverance ministry.

To him, the charismatic ministers and renegade priests are casting out the demons of social change: feminism, the sexual revolution, New Age spirituality and the loss of faith in traditional institutions.

[2]Kirkus Reviews called American Exorcism "an engaging and detailed document of a provocative subculture [...] that will neither confirm nor confound the reader’s demonic fears".

They concluded that "Cuneo's excursion into the darker paths of American faith offers a deeply disturbing, ironic vision of what he sees as the unintended consequences of popular culture for the modern religious imagination.

"[4] Mark Dery, writing for The Washington Post, noted that the book is "armed with a wry wit and girded in the armor of an inquiring but 'open-mindedly skeptical' intellect".