Historian Smith rejects the argument that this important event in US intellectual and religious history was nothing more than the invention of the preachers of the Second Great Awakening and seeks to redefine the movement. The genesis of the Awakening, he argues, flows from German Pietism, Scots-Irish Presbyterianism, and Puritanism. Smith provides ample coverage of the major figures of the First Great Awakening—Jonathan Edwards, Gilbert Tennant, George Whitefield, and the radical James Davenport—as well as the anti-revivalist opposition of those such as Charles Chauncy. Instead of ending the Awakening in 1745, he expands it to include the southern colonies in the late 1740s and 1750s through the preaching of Baptists and Presbyterians, a revival that continued into the 1770s. Smith contends the Awakening helped plow the ground from which the American Revolution sprang. . . .[The author] includes a much broader look at 'women, African Americans, and Indians' than previous scholars have. Especially interesting is the Nativist-accommodationist struggle among Native Americans, a struggle that led to Pontiac’s Rebellion. A worthwhile read for both the knowledgeable and the novice. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries.
