| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 105.1

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 105.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Kathryn Teresa Long. The Revival of 1857–58: Interpreting an American Religious Awakening. (Religion in America Series.) New York: Oxford University Press. 1998. Pp. viii, 256. $45.00.

The religious revival of 1857–1858 was set against a backdrop of financial crisis and impending disunion, and it has not received much scholarly attention until now. Thanks to Kathryn Teresa Long's exhaustive research and painstaking analysis, scholars can learn something more about it than its urban character and businessmen orientation. Relying on firsthand accounts, early histories, and newspaper stories, Long offers a deeply penetrating examination of an event that in its day was viewed as one of the momentous occurrences of the nineteenth century. 1

One of the most impressive findings of this superb study is its recognition of the constructedness of historical events. As Long notes, the lunch hour meetings, public prayers and exhortations, and individual conversions did not necessarily constitute a "revival" until someone gave it such a designation. In this case, two newspaper editors in New York, Horace Greeley and James Gordon Bennett, published stories about the extraordinary religious services and conversions and proclaimed them evidence of revival: the revival of 1857. Desiring as well to sell papers, these and other editors, packaged the event in "newsworthy" ways, which resulted in an emphasis on men's participation (even though more women converted) and on the conversion of well-known sporting figures. Christian accounts followed on the heels of the popular presses' naming of the revival. . . .

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