A quarter-century after its first publication; A Shopkeeper's Millennium remains a landmark work--brilliant both as a new interpretation of the intimate connections among politics; economy; and religion during the Second Great Awakening; and as a surprising portrait of a rapidly growing frontier city. The religious revival that transformed America in the 1820s; making it the most militantly Protestant nation on earth and spawning reform movements dedicated to temperance and to the abolition of slavery; had an especially powerful effect in Rochester; New York. Paul E. Johnson explores the reasons for the revival's spectacular success there; suggesting important links between its moral accounting and the city's new industrial world. In a new preface; he reassesses his evidence and his conclusions in this major work.
#1052008 in Books The University of North Carolina Press 2009-12-01Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.50 x .75 x 6.25l; 1.05 #File Name: 0807859923312 pages
Review
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful. the revolution behind the scenesBy hmf22The United States did not seek to regulate contraception and abortion until the mid-nineteenth century. Family size peaked in the mid-eighteenth century. What happened in between? That; in a nutshell; is Klepp's topic in Revolutionary Conceptions. Klepp maintains that while the American Revolution was unfolding on the world stage; another; female-led revolution was unfolding behind the scenes as American couples began to delay marriage; space births; and curtail childbearing several years before the wives reached menopause. These changes transformed the pattern of women's lives and their very conception of their purpose in life.This engaging book is a surprisingly quick read as scholarly works go. It has a strong statistical foundation; with due attention to regional and class differences. Klepp approaches her topic imaginatively: in one lavishly illustrated chapter; she explores how images of women gradually changed from emphasizing fertility to emphasizing self-control. The chapter on the technology of birth control is less satisfactory because Klepp doesn't wrap it up with a clear assessment of exactly how the typical Revolutionary-era woman limited family size; but she does at least provide a comprehensive overview of the full range of methods available; with an emphasis on emmenagogues. In short; Revolutionary Conceptions is a well-researched and fascinating book that challenges many previous theories about when and why Americans began to limit family size. Highly recommended.0 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Outstanding insights based on a lifetime of scholarship by a leading historian of 18th C PhiladelphiaBy HistoriannThis is a brilliant book that brings the eighteenth and early nineteenth century alive in the realm that historians find most difficult to discover: the history of private life; including sexuality and family life. In sum; this book argues that the real American Revolution for free women was their decision to have smaller families ca. 1760-1820; declaring independence from the "teeming bellies" esteemed earlier in the 18th C in favor of fewer children and greater attention and care for the children's educations. I have taught this book repeatedly in undergraduate classes as well as to graduate students; and they love the fascinating insights as well as the larger argument the book makes; which they find largely persuasive.The book also features a striking essay analyzing 18th C Anglo-American women's portraiture as a clue to these transformations; which we use in class alongside Google image searches of the paintings so we can see the full-color versions of the portraits included in the book (and some that aren't as well.)0 of 2 people found the following review helpful. An interesting textbook.By CustomerThis was a really good and exciting book although it didn't completely answer my questions about the time the author researched.
