Visions of Zion: Christianity, Modernization and the American Pursuit of Liberty Progessivism in Rural Nelson and Washington Counties Kentucky

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Three decades after the Civil War-amidst a resurgent patriotic fervor, a new Christian Awakening and an enveloping modernization promising heretofore unimagined heights of prosperity and well-being-a new generation of Americans in rural Nelson and Washington Counties, Kentucky, were experiencing what Lincoln in their fathers' war had promised: a new birth of freedom. Before them they saw the ancient vision of Zion, America as the new Promised Land, the Christian Republic, the Shining City on a Hill, shedding its light of prosperity and freedom on all. Their destiny and calling, they had no doubt, was to secure liberty and its blessings for themselves and posterity.

This was the Vision and the hope that united them as a people and as a crusading army at home and abroad, inspiring a multitude of social and political reforms and drawing them into the Great War of 1914-1918. It is this story that Visions of Zion tells-of dreams that united and divided, that lifted up and brought low-a story of a drive for everlasting peace that led to war and that finally ends with the collapse of Zion and fading of all those wondrous dreams of a better world.

Reviews

....Hood's meticulous research, his exploration of the rurual reform experience during the Progressive era, and his willingness to place his topic in a larger historiographical context make it a useful model for others to test how representative Nelson and Washington Counties were. -- Nicholas Burkel, Marquette University * Journal of Southern History *
....Visions of Zion contains considerable useful information about local politics and reform campaigns in two Kentucky counties during a period of rapid social change. -- Jeanette Keith, University of Pennsylvania * Register of the Kentucky Historical Society *
Visions of Zion is local history at its best because it places everyday events in a greater context of the region, the nation, and the world...An impeccably researched book with more than adequate endnotes, bibliography, and index. -- William E. Ellis * The Courier-Journal *

Author Bio

J. Larry Hood is Adjunct Professor of History at the University of Kentucky. Professor Hood received his M.B.A. from Xavier University and his Ph.D. in American History from the University of Kentucky.