21st in a series The Second Great Awakening denotes a period of religious revival that lasted over 40 years, roughly from 1795 until 1835. It left an indelible mark on the American mind. Its effects are manifold, sometimes contradictory, or at least apparently so. They run very deep. To attempt to explain all this in a single essay would be foolhardy, but I shall attempt it at the risk of being reproved by the dictum “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” The quest for historical understanding inevitab … (read more)
