The Democratic Dilemma: Religion, Reform, and the Social Order in the Connecticut River Valley of Vermont, 1791-1850

by Randolph A. Roth

Overview

The Age of Democratic Revolution, which spanned the period between the end of the Seven Years' War in 1763 and the middle of the nineteenth century, witnessed a profound transformation in the role of governments and the ways in which religious institutions shaped the morals and spiritual beliefs of the societies that surrounded them. Nowhere was that transformation more dramatic than in Vermont, where the pioneers who settled New England's northern frontier launched the most radical democratic revolution of the era. There a society arose that was formally committed to the ideals of democracy, equality, and religious freedom, and rejected slavery, monarchy, established churches, and imperial domination.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521317733
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	04/25/2002
Pages:	412
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.91(d)

Table of Contents

List of tables and maps; Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1. The revolutionary frontier, 1763–1800; 2. The failure of the covenanted community and the standing order, 1791–1815; 3. Religion and reform in the shaping of a new order, 1815–28; 4. From an era of promise to pressing times, 1815–43; 5. A clamor for reform, 1828–35; 6. The great revival, 1827–43; 7. A modified order in town life and politics, 1835–50; 8. Boosterism, sentiment, free soil, and the preservation of a Christian, reformed republic; Conclusion; Appendices; Notes; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"...Offers a solid analysis of early nineteenth-century Vermont as it adjusted to rapid social and economic change, and faced conflicts between democratic ideology and the inequalities produced by a competitive economy...Roth adds an important dimension to our understanding of the New England frontier, and the manner in which New Englanders bridged post-Revolutionary conflicts between democratic equality and economic competition." Jeffrey P. Brown, the Historian

From the Publisher