Beschreibung:
<jats:p>The study of evangelical moral reform has become one of the most fruitful areas of research in American religious history. By looking at reform, particularly voluntary societies, social and political historians have acknowledged the cultural importance of religion. Thus, nineteenth-century evangelicals have been recognized for their positive, negative, or ambiguous contributions to American society. Often with great success, historians have expounded and promoted interpretations of social control, capitalist expansionism, and neo-Marxism regarding evangelical social action. Yet, in spite of differing nuances, many of these interpretations follow much the same story line: antebellum evangelicals attempted, however nobly or misguidedly, to impose their standards of piety and morality on the American public. They feared the chaos released by the American and French revolutions.</jats:p>