Description
Book SynopsisDuring the first half of the nineteenth century the wooded hills and the valleys of western New York State were swept by fires of the spirit. The fervent religiosity of the region caused historians to call it the "burned-over...
Trade ReviewCross has given us by far our best record of a famous chapter in the history of American religion.
* Church History *
The remarkable flowering of spiritual activity in the 'burned-over district' has long puzzled historians; but until this book never received full-length treatment. Cross roamed the archives and manuscript repositories of western New York; he went through the files of obscure country newspapers and forgotten religious magazines; and the result of his patient and exact research is a major contribution to American social and intellectual history. He has drawn the social background of the burned-over district in rich detail and amplitude. Moving out of this background, he can bring revivalism, Mormonism, and the other new sects into fresh and enlightening perspective. His comments on Joseph Smith, on Mormonism and the frontier, on the development of Finney's theology, on the entry of Swedenborgianism as a catch-all for the ultraist faiths, and on the vagaries of spiritualism are the product of sharp insight and steady judgment.... Cross has written an indispensable chapter in our intellectual history.
-- Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. * The Nation *
The title of this volume would lead the reader to believe that only a microcosmic study of nineteenth-century religion in upper New York had been covered. However, it soon becomes evident that the scope of the book is much wider. It is an intensive study of the social, cultural, economic, political, and ideological causations of the great religious upheavals of the time and their far-reaching effects upon American culture.
* Pennsylvania History *
This is an excellent piece of social historical writing.
* American Journal of Sociology *
This tour through the psychological highways and byways of enthusiastic religion is richly rewarding.
* Mississippi Valley Historical Review *
Table of ContentsPreface
List of MapsBOOK I. ORIGINS: 1800–1825
Chapter 1. The Great Revival
Chapter 2. Yankee Benevolence
Chapter 3. PremonitionsBOOK II. ENVIRONMENT: 1825–1850
Chapter 4. Canal Days
Chapter 5. Social PatternsBOOK III. PORTENTS: 1825–1831
Chapter 6. The Martyr
Chapter 7. Yorker Benevolence
Chapter 8. The Prophet
Chapter 9. The EvangelistBOOK IV. GENESIS OF ULTRAISM: 1826–1837
Chapter 10. New Measures
Chapter 11. New Men
Chapter 12. New IdeasBOOK V. HARVEST: 1830–1845
Chapter 13. A Moral Reformation
Chapter 14. Perfect Sanctification
Chapter 15. Schism
Chapter 16. The Pattern of Dispersing UltraismBOOK VI. AFTERMATH: 1840–1850
Chapter 17. The End of the World
Chapter 18. Utopia Now
Chapter 19. World without End
Chapter 20. The Passing EraAppendix. Notes on Maps
Index
