Overview

In the first half of the nineteenth century, the United States saw both a series of Protestant religious revivals and the dramatic expansion of the marketplace. Although today conservative Protestantism is associated with laissez-faire capitalism, many of the nineteenth-century believers who experienced these transformations offered different, competing visions of the link between commerce and Christianity. Joseph P. Slaughter offers a new account of the interplay between religion and capitalism in American history by telling the stories of the Protestant entrepreneurs who established businesses to serve as agents of cultural and economic reform. Faith in Markets examines three Christian business enterprises and the visions of a Christian marketplace they represented. Shaped by Pietist, Calvinist, and Arminian theologies, each offered different answers to the question of what a moral, Christian market should look like. George Rapp & Associates operated sophisticated textile factories as the business side of the model community the Harmony Society, which practiced communal living in pursuit of a harmonious workforce. The Pioneer Stage Coach Line provided transportation services only six days a week to keep Sunday sacred, attempting to reform society by outcompeting less pious businesses. The publisher Harper & Brothers sought to elevate American culture through commerce by producing virtuous products like lavishly illustrated Bibles. Drawing on a wide range of sources, Faith in Markets explores how the founders and owners of these enterprises infused their faith into their businesses and, in turn, how distinctly religious businesses shaped American capitalism and society.

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9780231191104

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Reviews

This book is an extraordinarily well-researched examination of the origins of what we now call ‘Christian business enterprise’ and an impeccably detailed and rich account of three different forms of Christian business enterprises. Throughout, Slaughter provides a beautifully wrought narrative of these enterprises, their founders, and how Christianity and capitalism interacted. -- Paul Harvey, author of <i>Christianity and Race in the American South: A History</i> The long history of free enterprise in the United States cannot be understood without reckoning with the history of religion. Wherever a marketplace emerged it did so in loud engagement with Protestants who sought its use for varied theological and social ends. A critical intervention in the history of capitalism. -- Kathryn Lofton, author of <i>Consuming Religion</i> In Faith in Markets, Slaughter expertly explores how early American Protestants grappled with the moral implications of capitalism. Neither fully embracing nor rejecting a laissez-faire market model, his protagonists sought to transform capitalism into a tool of moral uplift. This is a must-read book for anyone seeking to understand the roots of American Christianity’s relationship with capitalism. -- Sharon Murphy, author of <i>Banking on Slavery: Financing Southern Expansion in the Antebellum United States</i> Slaughter’s study of ‘Christian business enterprises’ is a timely, readable, and searching account of the long-standing entanglement of religion and business in early national America. Few recent works have done as much to demonstrate the connections between specific forms of Christian theology and market capitalism. -- Seth Perry, author of <i>Bible Culture and Authority in the Early United States</i> Faith in Markets is a masterfully researched, lucidly written, and analytically keen study of the relationship between Protestantism and business in nineteenth-century America. Through compelling accounts that demonstrate a new approach to religion and capitalism, Slaughter shows the reader the wonders and diversity of what he aptly labels as early forms of Christian business enterprises. -- Mark Valeri, author of <i>Heavenly Merchandize: How Religion Shaped Commerce in Puritan America</i>

This book is an extraordinarily well-researched examination of the origins of what we now call “Christian Business Enterprise” and an impeccably detailed and rich account of three different forms of Christian Business Enterprises. Throughout, Slaughter provides a beautifully wrought narrative of these enterprises, their founders, the way in which Christianity and capitalism interacted, and why the development of CBE did not have to wait for the twentieth century. -- Paul Harvey, author of <i>Christianity and Race in the American South: A History</i>

This book is an extraordinarily well-researched examination of the origins of what we now call “Christian Business Enterprise” and an impeccably detailed and rich account of three different forms of Christian Business Enterprises. Throughout, Slaughter provides a beautifully wrought narrative of these enterprises, their founders, the way in which Christianity and capitalism interacted, and why the development of CBE did not have to wait for the twentieth century. -- Paul Harvey, author of <i>Christianity and Race in the American South: A History</i> Faith in Markets is a masterfully researched, lucidly written, and analytically keen study of the relationship between Protestantism and business in nineteenth-century America. Through compelling accounts that demonstrate a new approach to religion and capitalism, Slaughter shows the reader the wonders and diversity of what he aptly labels as early forms of Christian business enterprises. -- Mark Valeri, author of <i>Heavenly Merchandize: How Religion Shaped Commerce in Puritan America</i>

This book is an extraordinarily well-researched examination of the origins of what we now call “Christian Business Enterprise” and an impeccably detailed and rich account of three different forms of Christian Business Enterprises. Throughout, Slaughter provides a beautifully wrought narrative of these enterprises, their founders, the way in which Christianity and capitalism interacted, and why the development of CBE did not have to wait for the twentieth century. -- Paul Harvey, author of <i>Christianity and Race in the American South: A History</i> Faith in Markets is a masterfully researched, lucidly written, and analytically keen study of the relationship between Protestantism and business in nineteenth-century America. Through compelling accounts that demonstrate a new approach to religion and capitalism, Slaughter shows the reader the wonders and diversity of what he aptly labels as early forms of Christian business enterprises. -- Mark Valeri, author of <i>Heavenly Merchandize: How Religion Shaped Commerce in Puritan America</i> In Faith in Markets, Slaughter expertly explores how early American Protestants grappled with the moral implications of capitalism. Neither fully embracing nor rejecting a laissez-faire market model, his protagonists sought to transform capitalism into a tool of moral uplift. This is a must-read book for anyone seeking to understand the roots of American Christianity’s relationship with capitalism. -- Sharon Murphy, author of <i>Banking on Slavery: Financing Southern Expansion in the Antebellum United States</i>

Author Information

Joseph P. Slaughter is assistant professor of history at Wesleyan University.

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