Restless visionaries

In the decades before the Civil War, numerous Americans lent their enthusiasm to various social reform movements. Most studies to date, however, have considered this phenomenon only in the Northeast. In this work, John W. Quist explores reform movements in two individual counties - one in the Old Northwest, the other in the Deep South - to understand better how deeply and extensively the climate of reform penetrated American life. In both Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, and Washtenaw County, Michigan, Quist investigates those causes that eventually were carried forward by large voluntary…