The Methodists and Revolutionary America, 1760-1800 : The Shaping of an Evangelical Culture

The Methodists and Revolutionary America is the first in-depth narrative of the origins of American Methodism, one of the most significant popular movements in American history. Placing Methodism's rise in the ideological context of the American Revolution and the complex social setting of the greater Middle Atlantic where it was first introduced, Dee Andrews argues that this new religion provided an alternative to the exclusionary politics of Revolutionary America. With its call to missionary preaching, its enthusiastic revivals, and its prolific religious societies, Methodism competed with republicanism for a place at the center of American culture. Based on rare archival sources and a wealth of Wesleyan literature, this book examines all aspects of the early movement. From Methodism's Wesleyan beginnings to the prominence of women in local societies, the construction of African Methodism, the diverse social profile of Methodist men, and contests over the movement's future, Andrews charts Methodism's metamorphosis from a British missionary organization to a fully Americanized church. Weaving together narrative and analysis, Andrews explains Methodism's extraordinary popular appeal in rich and compelling new detail.

"Dee Andrews provides the most comprehensive and rounded history in print of the rise of American Methodism. A signal and enduring achievement."--Patricia U. Bonomi, author of Under the Cope of Heaven: Religion, Society, and Politics in Colonial America

"The Methodists and Revolutionary America is superbly researched, solidly written, and imaginatively conceived--a superbly synoptic account of one of the defining groups in American religious history."--Jon Butler, Yale University

Donald G. Matthews - William and Mary Quarterly

Methodists have been among the most important artisans of American culture, but as a people they have largely been invisible to historians. . . . Andrews is consistently careful to tease out the contradictions that make it difficult to reduce the movement of a simple formula, such as class consciousness or gendered enlightenment. . . . From the very beginning, the primary goal of this evangelizing church was not to change politics or social structure, but to reach people in every condition 'by popularizing the confessional religious life.' Through Dee Andrews . . . that life becomes an essential part of every American history.

Raising Religious Affections -- The Wesleyan Connection -- The Making Of A Methodist -- Evangelical Sisters -- The African Methodists -- Laboring Men, Artisans, And Entrepreneurs -- Methodism Politicized -- The Great Revival And Beyond. Dee E. Andrews. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [265]-349) And Index.