Visionary Republic
Millennial Themes in American Thought, 1756–1800

This book sheds light on the role of religion in the American Revolution and surveys an important facet of the intellectual history of the early Republic.

Ruth H. Bloch (Author)

9780521357647, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 26 February 1988

308 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.47 kg

'To have displayed the scope and breadth of millennial themes in popular culture is in itself a significant contribution … Bloch has read carefully and widely, intelligently and sometimes brilliantly, to interpret popular expectancy in the late eighteenth century. It is a pleasure to experience the vision with her.' William and Mary Quarterly

An account of the role of millennial thinking in the age of the American Revolution, this book demonstrates the popularity and diffusion of millennial expectations among several types of American Protestants by the middle of the eighteenth century and illuminates the way these hopes shaped the understanding of the Revolution and the symbolic meaning of the new nation. Unlike most previous works, this study extends well beyond the social and geographic perimeters of the New England clergy and is based on a wide range of secular as well as religious literature. The book not only sheds light on the role of religion in the American Revolution, but it also surveys an important facet of the intellectual history of the early Republic. Analysing the interplay of millennial, republican and Enlightenment ideas about the future, the author reveals both complementary and contradictory themes in American thought of an older cultural tradition of millennialism while at the same time tracing variations and changes within that tradition during this formative period of American history.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I. The Development of a Millennial Tradition in Colonial America: 1. Millennialism and the origins of Anglo-American radicalism
2. Colonial millennialism on the eve of the revolutionary crisis
Part II. The Rise and Decline of Millennialism in the Revolutionary Era: 3. Whig resistance and apocalyptical Manichaeanism
4. The revolutionary millennialism of the 1770's
5. Visions of progress and ruin in the critical period
Part III. The Eschatological Revival of the 1790's: 6. Exegesis
7. Francophilic millennialism and partisan Republican ideology
8. Biblical millennialism and radical Enlightened utopianism
9. Francophobic reaction and evangelical activism
Notes
Index.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX]