Restless Visionaries: The Social Roots of Antebellum Reform in Alabama and Michigan [Hardcover]

John W. Quist (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1998

Decades before the Civil War, numerous Americans had enthusiasm to various social reform movements. Most studies by scholars have considered this enthusiasm to be only in the Northeast. John W. Quist explores reform movements in two individual counties-one in the Old Northwest and the other in the Deep South-and finds many similarities between the movements despite their differences in locations.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 584 pages
• Publisher: Louisiana State University Press (October 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807121339
• ISBN-13: 978-0807121337
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,344,610 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pathbreaking Study of Antebellum Reform, July 15, 2000

By 

Glenn M. Harden (Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Restless Visionaries: The Social Roots of Antebellum Reform in Alabama and Michigan (Hardcover)

Historians of antebellum reform have tended to divide their subject along sectional lines, with northern reform being considered normative. Antebellum reform in the North has been difficult enough to understand, so it should be no surprise that few scholars have dared to reconcile the reform impulse in the North and South. Even admitting that the reform impulse existed in the South has been a somewhat recent development in the historiography (for examples, see Anne Loveland's Southern Evangelicals and the Social Order, Stanley Harrold's Abolitionists and the South, and Janet Cornelius Duitsman's Slave Missions and the Black Church in the Antebellum South). Quist, however, tackles the problem head-on by comparing reform in two counties, one in Alabama and one in Michigan. That he finds significant differences should surprise no one. That he also finds striking similarities, however, may require us to do some rethinking about reform in the antebellum South. Just as in the North, he sees reform in the South as "compatible with the demands of market behavior." His study is truly pathbreaking in that it opens up new territory and problems to explore. Because of Quist, any comprehensive account of antebellum reform will need to incorporate the Southern reform experience. I highly recommend this work to students of antebellum reform.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant, very detailed book, September 18, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Restless Visionaries: The Social Roots of Antebellum Reform in Alabama and Michigan (Hardcover)

This book does for the subject of southern reform what J. Mills Thornton's Politics and Power in a Slave Society did for southern politics. We simply have to reevaluate out traditional approach to antebellum southern culture after this book. Absolutely not for general readers, who do not like such detail and a 57.50 (!) price tag, but essential for South historians.