A Shopkeeper's Millennium by Paul E. Johnson

It was a federation of wealthy families and their friends.' (p. 'Rochester's entrepreneurial community was no capitalist free-for-all.

32) Against this, he argues that religious revival was an attempt by old elites to reestablish the patriarchal mores which under girded a specific economic ordering of society.įirst, Johnson sets up the economic structure of Rochester at its founding. Johnson's straw man is the argument the 'revivals were society's antidote to individualism' (p. Johnson places the evangelical Protestant movement within the context of changing social, economic and political relations in the city of Rochester, NY between the years of 18. If you’re a Rochesterian or a American religious scholar, then this is for you. Granted, a whole lot of the general public isn’t clamoring for work on local religious 19th-century history, but this could be a bit better. There’s a ton of statistics combined with the feeling that this is definitely a professor’s work. His reading of the events isn’t exactly riveting, however. The sheer amount of Johnson’s research is staggering the bibliography is worthy of the Yale history professor that he is. Johnson posits that this new religious movement was the impetus behind the Whig party and that its passing signaled the end of the new party. Later, the evangelical movement actually split the economic elite against itself. After that, he details the struggle of the economic elite, the Masons, and the evangelicals Charles Finney and Josiah Bissell against the new middle class of business owners burgeoning in Rochester. The beginning chapters recount the history of the city and how the business relationships shaped the manner by which the revival would shape Rochester’s future. By looking through the tax, census, church, and news records of the city from 1815 to 1837, he posits an interpretation of how the religious revival of 1831 changed the social, political, and economic landscape of the city. Johnson’s Shopkeeper’s Millennium traces the effects of the Second Awakening in the town of Rochester, New York.

Rushing to fill this moral vacuum were local ministers and preachers fostering a sense of personal responsibility and religious living. Along with them came a new era of quasi-lawlessness and country justice. cities were concentrated around sea ports, but the vastness of the interior of the new United States was a big temptation for land speculators and budding farmers.

The Revolution was behind us and the population was moving inland. The early 1800s in America were a very interesting time.

A Shopkeeper's Millennium by Paul E. Johnson