A provocative reassessment of religion and culture in the early days of the American republic "The so-called Second Great Awakening was the shaping epoch of American Protestantism, and this book is the most important study of it ever published."—James Turner, Journal of Interdisciplinary History   Winner of the John Hope Franklin Publication Prize, the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic book prize, and the Albert C. Outler Prize In this provocative reassessment of religion and culture in the early days of the American republic, Nathan O. Hatch argues that during this period American Christianity was democratized and common people became powerful actors on the religious scene. Hatch examines five distinct traditions or mass movements that emerged early in the nineteenth century—the Christian movement, Methodism, the Baptist movement, the black churches, and the Mormons—showing how all offered compelling visions of individual potential and collective aspiration to the unschooled and unsophisticated. "The most powerful, informed, and complex suggestion yet made about the religious, political, and psychic 'opening' of American life from Jefferson to Jackson. . . . Hatch's reconstruction of his five religious mass movements will add popular religious culture to denominationalism, church and state, and theology as primary dimensions of American religious history."—Robert M. Calhoon, William and Mary Quarterly "Hatch's revisionist work asks us to put the religion of the early republic in a radically new perspective. . . . He has written one of the finest books on American religious history to appear in many years."—James H. Moorhead, Theology Today "Professor Hatch's amply documented study captures a wide range of the many-sided demands for equality and freedom that have characterized American Protestant Christianity, and the disdain for deference and patronage—nowhere more so than among black preachers. . . . The Democratization of American Christianity constitutes vital reading for those who would understand just what experience of the United States has done to Christian belief and practice."—Bryan Wilson, Times Literary Supplement "This study sheds important new light on early American social history. It extends a central theme that historians have used to explain political history into a new arena. It offers fresh ideas about the development of the evangelical movement that are important for all students of history to understand. In short, this book makes an important new contribution to social history."—Richard G. Miller, History: Reviews of New Books "A superb treatment of Christianity during the volatile period of the early American Republic, which every student of American religious history must read, savor, and incorporate into his or her thinking of American religion and culture."—Timothy E. Fulop, Journal of the American Academy of Religion "A standard reference on American religious history."—Michael Cromartie, First Things "Rarely do works of scholarship deserve as much attention as this one. The so-called Second Great Awakening was the shaping epoch of American Protestantism, and this book is the most important study of it ever published. . . . Hatch's account of the inner dynamic of American Protestantism is not merely plausible but compelling. We will never again look at the Second Great Awakening—or at the history of religion in America—with the same eyes."—James Turner, Journal of Interdisciplinary History "A seminal and revisionist book. . . . Hatch's paradigm has persuasive power because it seems to explain what is still happening in American religious life. . . . His book is . . . an important corrective to prevailing views and a marvelous impetus to further investigation."—Dewey D. Wallace, Jr., American Studies International "This volume adds a crucial element to the narrative of the emergence of American culture after the revolution and, like all good revisions, should open the door to a new and necessary era of investigation."—John G. Stackhouse, Jr., Journal of Religion "Hatch's detailed analysis of the life of the churches during the formative years of the republic is on the whole thoroughly convincing."—Winthrop S. Hudson, Church History "A landmark in the interpretation of early American religion. . . . His call to place populist religion at the center of the Second Great Awakening is categorically correct and long overdue. This volume provides a compelling new vision of religion in the early republic and invites scholars to a rich interpretive discourse certain to reshape its historiography."—Stephen A. Marini, American Historical Review "Not only is Nathan O. Hatch's Democratization of American Christianity thoroughly researched and a pleasure to read, it is also one of the most important books on U. S. religious history to be published in the last decade. . . . The Democratization of American Christianity is a major achi