The Protestant Clergy in the Great Plains and Mountain West, 1865-1915

The mainline Protestant churches played a vital role in the settlement of the West. Yet historians have, for the most part, bypassed this theme. This account recreates the unique religious and cultural mix that sets this region apart from the rest of the nation. From itinerant circuit riders to powerful urban bishops, western clergy were continually involved in the maturation of their communities. Their duties on the frontier extended far beyond delivering Sunday sermons; they also served as librarians, counselors, social workers, educators, booksellers, peace keepers, and general purveyors of culture.Weaving together the varied experiences of men and women from the five major Protestant denominations - Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Congregational, and Episcopal - the author discusses their responses to life on the frontier: the violence, the tumultuous growth of the cities, the isolation of farm life, and the widespread hunger, especially among women, for 'refinement'. Ferenc Morton Szasz is Regents' Professor of History at the University of New Mexico and the author of "Religion in the Modern American West" and "The Day the Sun Rose Twice: The Story of the Trinity Site Nuclear Explosion, July 16, 1945".

ISBN 0803293119   Pages 296 ISBN13 9780803293113 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher University of Nebraska Press   Weight (grammes) 413 Imprint University of Nebraska Press   Published in Lincoln Format Paperback   Previous ISBN 9789999999991 Publication date 01 Aug 2004   Height (mm) 230 Library of Congress BR545.S95   Width (mm) 154 DEWEY 280.4097809034   Spine width (mm) 17 DEWEY edition DC22   Academic level Professional / Scholarly

		Introduction		3
Ch. 1		The beginnings		11
Ch. 2		The wild ones, c. 1865-1882		29
Ch. 3		The settled communities, c. 1880-1915		51
Ch. 4		The vastness of the Great Plains		71
Ch. 5		Conflict and cooperation on the western frontier		87
Ch. 6		The exceptional populations, I : the hispanics of the Southwest		131
Ch. 7		The exceptional populations, II : the Latter-Day Saints		153
Ch. 8		The exceptional populations, III : the Native Americans		175
Ch. 9		The social gospel in the New West		193
		Conclusion		209
		Notes		217
		Bibliography		257
		Index		275

"Essential to understanding not only the vitality of American religion today, but also the process of creating Christian hegemony in the United States."--Christian Science Monitor "An enjoyable and informative volume." --Anglican and Episcopal History [Szasz] has reopened the trans-Mississippi West in a book that will prove indispensable not only to historians of American religion but to those of social, cultural, and, of course, frontier history as well."--American Historical Review

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