| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.5

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.5 | The History Cooperative

Andrew C. Rieser. The Chautauqua Moment: Protestants, Progressives, and the Culture of Modern Liberalism. (Religion and American Culture.) New York: Columbia University Press. 2003. Pp. xiii, 399. $37.50.
Institutional histories are necessary evils. By sifting through mind-numbing reams of official documents, reports, and personal histories, the scholar compiles a narrative preserving a valuable past but interesting only to a few insiders. Unless an interpretive framework can be constructed in which to place the institution, its history remains largely unread and unappreciated. The critic congratulates the historian for the monotonous and painstaking research but decries a lack of contextual significance. One cannot help but be reminded of the common phrase written on the undergraduate paper using primary research: so what?	1
Andrew C. Rieser has transcended this common problem with flying colors. His history of the Chautauqua movement is solid research transformed into an inquiry into the development and definitions of culture and class in post-Civil War America. The author makes clear that his is not an institutional history but rather, social history.	. . .

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