Overview
"The United States has long thought of itself as exceptional--a nation destined to lead the world into a bright and glorious future. These ideas go back to the Puritan belief that Massachusetts would be a ""city on a hill,"" and in time that image came to define the United States and the American mentality. But what is at the root of these convictions? John Howard Smith's A Dream of the Judgment Day explores the origins of beliefs about the biblical end of the world as Americans have come to understand them, and how these beliefs led to a conception of the United States as an exceptional nation with a unique destiny to fulfill. However, these beliefs implicitly and explicitly excluded African Americans and American Indians because they didn't fit white Anglo-Saxon ideals. While these groups were influenced by these Christian ideas, their exclusion meant they had to craft their own versions of millenarian beliefs. Women and other marginalized groups also played a far larger role than usually acknowledged in this phenomenon, greatly influencing the developing notion of the United States as the ""redeemer nation."" Smith's comprehensive history of eschatological thought in early America encompasses traditional and non-traditional Christian beliefs in the end of the world. It reveals how millennialism and apocalypticism played a role in destructive and racist beliefs like ""Manifest Destiny,"" while at the same time influencing the foundational idea of the United States as an ""elect nation."" Featuring a broadly diverse cast of historical figures, A Dream of the Judgment Day synthesizes more than forty years of scholarship into a compelling and challenging portrait of early America."
Full Product Details
Author: John Howard Smith (Professor of History, Professor of History, Texas A&M University-Commerce)
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:
Width: 23.60cm
, Height: 3.30cm
, Length: 15.50cm
Weight: 0.726kg
ISBN: 9780197533741
ISBN 10: 0197533744
Pages: 396
Publication Date: 31 March 2021
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.
Reviews
Although library shelves are already heavy with good academic studies of American apocalypticism, John Howard Smith's A Dream of the Judgment Day is, in my opinion, the best single volume on the history of apocalypticism and millennialism in the United States now available. * Brian C. Wilson, Western Michigan University, Nova Religio *
Author Information
John Howard Smith is Professor of History at Texas A&M University--Commerce and author of The First Great Awakening: Redefining Religion in British America, 1725-1775.
