"... a seminal study of early 19th-century American Methodist theology and piety. It also presents an innovative and supple model for analyzing 19th-century religion in general." —Christian Century"... an immensely insightful, probing, sophisticated, provocative essay of Methodism in transition... " —The Journal of Religion"... a provocative contribution to revisionist interpretations of the history of American Methodism" —Methodist History"A. Gregory Schneider has written an extraordinary book on early Methodism in the Ohio Valley. He made excellent use of social and psychological theories of identity and group behavior to shed new light on a much-studied religious movement." —Journal of American History"Schneider has significantly enriched our understanding of American religion." —The Catholic Historical Review"[An] imaginative, brilliant, and profound case study of American Methodism.... Schneider"s reading of Methodist discourse provides a truly innovative way of thinking about nineteenth-century American faith, gender, family, and culture." —Donald G. Mathews, University of North Carolina, Chapel HillThis richly detailed study of the rise of American Methodism and its social and cultural impact focuses on Methodist religious practice. Schneider shows how the forms of Methodist social religion laid the foundation for the adoption by many white middle-class Christians of an ideology of evangelical domesticity.