The logic of millennial thought: Eighteenth-century New England

by James West Davidson

Logic of Millennial Thought, The: Eighteenth Century New England, by Davidson, James West

Genres: Religion

320 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1977

About the author

James West Davidson is a historian, writer, and wilderness paddler. He received his Ph.D. in American history from Yale University and writes full time. He is also co-editor, with Michael Stoff, of New Narratives in American History, a series published by Oxford University Press, as well as the coauthor of textbooks in American history. These include "Experience History," "After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection," and "US: A Narrative History" for the college level and "The American Nation" for the middle grades.

Reviews

[Katherine Addison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those books that I bought mostly because it was there and that turned out to be excellent. James West Davidson is a careful and respectful--but not at all reverent--scholar of the eschatology of eighteenth-century New Englanders, and he pursues his exploration mindfully, discussing overtly and straightforwardly the differences between what modern readers expect of the eighteenth century Puritans and what they get, and the problems inherent in trying to make sense of a mindset that we no longer share or even fully understand. He also has a dry, snarky sense of humor that I enjoyed immensely (certainly the last thing I expected when I started this book was to be giggling over it); in particular, I appreciate the fact that he does not take Cotton Mather at that gentleman's own self-valuation: "Mather often had a sneaking suspicion (and sometimes not so sneaking) that God might be using him as a principal instrument in fulfilling the Revelation" (13).

As someone who has written a dissertation (this book began as Davidson's doctoral thesis), I appreciate the meta-level at which Davidson periodically assesses his progress: "The argument thus far has led to two not very helpful conclusions: first, biblical prophecies seemed important to many eighteenth-century New Englanders; and second, prophecies and expositions of them are strange to us" (37). This is one of the most transparent academic books I have ever read, and I really liked the way that transparency allowed the reader a sense of the work being done by the author: we're watching Davidson construct and test and then reconstruct his theories. Like the Glass Cat (one of my favorite of L. Frank Baum's creatures), Davidson is letting us see his brains work.