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by John B. Boles (Author)
Drawing upon the religious writings of southern evangelicals, John Boles asserts that the extraordinary crowds and miraculous transformations that distinguished the South's First Great Awakening were not simply instances of emotional excess but the expression of widespread and complex attitudes toward God. Converted southerners were starkly individualistic, interested more in gaining personal salvation in a hopelessly evil world than in improving society. As Boles shows in this landmark study, the effect of the Revival was to throw over the region a conservative cast that remains dominant in contemporary southern thought and life.
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'This study of the Great Revival is based on meticulous and critical research....Boles seeks to understand the theology of the preachers, their methods of arousing an audience to emotional frenzy, and the effects of the revival on the Southern mind.' ---American Historical Review
Author Biography
John B. Boles is William P. Hobby Professor of History at Rice University. He is the author of numerous books including A Companion to the American South, The South through Time: A History of an American Region, Masters and Slaves in the House of the Lord, and Black Southerners, 1619-1869.
