Reddit mentions of Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt

Hi, I'm a historian recently graduated from an MA program, and also a prospective Episcopalian. If you're interested in the history of Christianity in the United States you're in luck! One of the last courses I took(and easily the most interesting) was an independent study my professor and I called "Religion and American Life". I'll provide a selected annotated bibliography here:


1. Under the Cope of Heaven: Religion, Society, and Politics in Colonial America by Patricia Bonomi. Bonomi's book covers the colonial period pretty well, and it is, I think, the shortest of the three, but no less interesting.


2. Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt by Christine Leigh Heyrman is a really amazing book that covers the early evangelical movement in the South during the Second Great Awakening in the 1790s.


2.5 A Shopkeeper's Millennium: Society and Revivals in Rochester, New York, 1815-1837 by Paul E. Johnson. Johnson's book, depending your views about when the 19th century started, is a really interesting and compelling history of the religious movement in Rochester NY during a very important time in its development. It includes economics, if that's your thing.


3. Without Benefit of Clergy: Women and the Pastoral Relationship in Nineteenth Century American Culture by Karin E. Gedge. If a more 19th century view is what you're after especially about women is interesting, then you'll like this one very much. It is a really interesting take and cultural history is fun to read.

I hope this was of assistance to you. Enjoy!

Edit: the formatting is funky and I don't know why. sorry.

I can help, here.

Edit: Perhaps the "founded" part, I didn't really cover with that. Here's a book that you can read on the topic:
Christine Leigh Heyrman, Southern Cross: The Beginning of the Bible Belt