Reviews
"Michael Young has done the unlikely: drawing new insights and rigorous comparisons from the well-trodden territory of movements for moral reform in the United States. Bearing Witness against Sin draws from abolitionism, temperance, and moral reform in the 1830s an enduring lesson about American social movements-about both their persistent religious foundations and the uneasy balance they need to maintain between interior moral reform and external political change. The mechanism for that conjunction in the 1830s was the public confession; but Young's findings go well beyond these three movements to the contemporary movements he briefly surveys at the end of the book and to the moral/political crisis of America today."--Sidney Tarrow, Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Government and Professor of Sociology, Cornell University, "Michael Young has done the unlikely: drawing new insights and rigorous comparisons from the well-trodden territory of movements for moral reform in the United States. "Bearing Witness against Sin "draws from abolitionism, temperance, and moral reform in the 1830s an enduring lesson about American social movements-about both their persistent religious foundations and the uneasy balance they need to maintain between interior moral reform and external political change. The mechanism for that conjunction in the 1830s was the public confession; but Young's findings go well beyond these three movements to the contemporary movements he briefly surveys at the end of the book and to the moral/political crisis of America today."--Sidney Tarrow, Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Government and Professor of Sociology, Cornell University, "In "Bearing Witness against Sin," Michael Young offers a creative and insightful reconsideration of the specifically religious origins of the national social movement in America. This is a significant contribution to our understanding of the role of religion in politics and of the political capacities of religious traditions.", Young's analysis and storyline are helpful, coherent, and persuasive in many ways. The book enhances our understanding of religious, political, and social events in antebellum America., "Michael Young has done the unlikely: drawing new insights and rigorous comparisons from the well-trodden territory of movements for moral reform in the United States. Bearing Witness against Sin draws from abolitionism, temperance, and moral reform in the 1830s an enduring lesson about American social movements--about both their persistent religious foundations and the uneasy balance they need to maintain between interior moral reform and external political change. The mechanism for that conjunction in the 1830s was the public confession; but Young's findings go well beyond these three movements to the contemporary movements he briefly surveys at the end of the book and to the moral/political crisis of America today."--Sidney Tarrow, Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Government and Professor of Sociology, Cornell University, "Michael Young has done the unlikely: drawing new insights and rigorous comparisons from the well-trodden territory of movements for moral reform in the United States. Bearing Witness against Sin draws from abolitionism, temperance, and moral reform in the 1830s an enduring lesson about American social movements-about both their persistent religious foundations and the uneasy balance they need to maintain between interior moral reform and external political change. The mechanism for that conjunction in the 1830s was the public confession; but Young's findings go well beyond these three movements to the contemporary movements he briefly surveys at the end of the book and to the moral/political crisis of America today."--Sidney Tarrow, Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Government and Professor of Sociology, Cornell University, "InBearing Witness against Sin,Michael Young offers a creative and insightful reconsideration of the specifically religious origins of the national social movement in America. This is a significant contribution to our understanding of the role of religion in politics and of the political capacities of religious traditions."-Christian Smith, University of Notre Dame , "InBearing Witness against Sin,Michael Young offers a creative and insightful reconsideration of the specifically religious origins of the national social movement in America. This is a significant contribution to our understanding of the role of religion in politics and of the political capacities of religious traditions."-Christian Smith, Stuart Chapin Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , Young''s analysis and storyline are helpful, coherent, and persuasive in many ways. The book enhances our understanding of religious, political, and social events in antebellum America.
