The Stammering Century (New York Review Books Classics) Rating :
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
readable for research
By Joe P. Szimhart
I research new and eccentric religious movements. This dated study by Seldes was a real gem that informed many gaps in my knowledge and drew me back to an era gone by. Fascinating range of characters with ideas and prophecies that led their devoted flocks for a time. Students of abnormal psychology as well as of religion will enjoy the author's insight that most new religions borrow from older models. These movements had more to do in shaping the American character than most people realize--in many ways we learn that Jonathan Edwards, "a Stormer of Heaven" and his "Great Awakening" is still with us. We also can find the roots of modern tomes like A Course in Miracles in the New Thought Movements of the 19th Century and why millions in Amercia still flock to "secrets" about the "Law of Attraction." We still want to believe in the power of mental magic. i really enjoyed this book.
9 of 19 people found the following review helpful.More Relevant for USA 2005 than for USA 1928
By Robert Aber
Written in 1928 and re-issued in 1964, The Stammering Century is a social history of the metamorphosis of religious revivalism - which is to say, American Christian Fundamentalism.
The Stammering Century traces the root of revivalism to early 18th century New England and the effects of Rev. Jonathan Edwards' famous sermon,
Product Description
Gilbert Seldes, the author of The Stammering Century, writes:
This book is not a record of the major events in American history during
the nineteenth century. It is concerned with minor movements, with the
cults and manias of that period. Its personages are fanatics, and radicals,
and mountebanks. Its intention is to connect these secondary movements
and figures with the primary forces of the century, and to supply a
background in American history for the Prohibitionists and the Pentecostalists;
the diet-faddists and the dealers in mail-order Personality; the play censors
and the Fundamentalists; the free-lovers and eugenists; the cranks and
possibly the saints. Sects, cults, manias, movements, fads, religious
excitements, and the relation of each of these to the others and to the
orderly progress of America are the subject.
The subject is of course as timely at the beginning of the twenty-first century as when the book first appeared in 1928. Seldes’s fascinated and often sympathetic accounts of dreamers, rogues, frauds, sectarians, madmen, and geniuses from Jonathan Edwards to the messianic murderer Matthias have established The Stammering Century not only as a lasting contribution to American history but as a classic in its own right.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #242804 in Books
- Published on: 2012-11-06
- Released on: 2012-11-06
- Original language:English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 7.91" h x5.16" w x.94" l,1.01 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 452 pages
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