Spreading the Word : The Bible Business in Nineteenth-Century America / Peter J. Wosh.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wosh, Peter J., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American Bible Society--History--19th century.

American Bible Society.

Bible--Publication and distribution--United States.

Bible.

Religious Studies.

United States--Economic conditions.

United States.

United States--Social conditions.

Local Subjects:

Religious Studies.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 271 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2018]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Civil war, the completion of transcontinental railroads, rapid urbanization and industrialization, the rise of managerial capitalism, and new entanglements abroad rent the fabric of life in nineteenth-century America. Through all the turmoil, the American Bible Society thrived. This engaging book tells how a modest antebellum reform agency responded to cataclysmic social change and grew to be a nonprofit corporate bureaucracy that managed, among other projects, what was one of the largest publishing houses in the United States.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List Of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. A Bible House In The City

2. From Civic Humanitarianism To Corporate Benevolence: The Changing Nature Of The Board Of Managers

3. Local Particularism And National Interests: Creating The Agency System, 1816-1830

4. The Limits Of Consensus In A Capitalist Metropolis: The Problem Of Mariners And "Papists"

5. The Limits Of Consensus In A Christian Republic: Jacksonians, Baptists, Translators, And Abolitionists

6. "Motives Of Both Duty And Expediency": Entering The Foreign Field, 1831-1844

7. Making Agents Accountable: Bureaucratization And The Agency System, 1845-1865

8. Race, War, And Sectionalism: Reconstructing The Southern Agencies, 1850-1867

9. Bringing System And Order To The Agency: Bible Work In The Levant, 1854-1889

Epilogue: From "Missionary Basis" To "Business Basis"? Isaac Bliss's Strange Lament

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 20. Sep 2019)

ISBN:

1-5017-1145-8

OCLC:

1080551351