{"product_id":"damned-nation-kathryn-gin-lum-9780199843114","title":"Damned Nation: Hell in America from the Revolution to Reconstruction","description":"Among the pressing concerns of Americans in the first century of nationhood were day-to-day survival, political harmony, exploration of the continent, foreign policy, and--fixed deeply in the collective consciousness--hell and eternal damnation. The fear of fire and brimstone and the worm that never dies exerted a profound and lasting influence on Americans' ideas about themselves, their neighbors, and the rest of the world. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eKathryn Gin Lum poses a number of vital questions: Why did the fear of hell survive Enlightenment critiques in America, after largely subsiding in Europe and elsewhere? What were the consequences for early and antebellum Americans of living with the fear of seeing themselves and many people they knew eternally damned? How did they live under the weighty obligation to save as many souls as possible? What about those who rejected this sense of obligation and fear? Gin Lum shows that beneath early Americans' vaunted millennial optimism lurked a pervasive anxiety: that rather than being favored by God, they and their nation might be the object of divine wrath. As time-honored social hierarchies crumbled before revival fire, economic unease, and political chaos, \"saved\" and \"damned\" became as crucial distinctions as race, class, and gender. The threat of damnation became an impetus for or deterrent from all kinds of behaviors, from reading novels to owning slaves. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eGin Lum tracks the idea of hell from the Revolution to Reconstruction. She considers the ideas of theological leaders like Jonathan Edwards and Charles Finney, as well as those of ordinary women and men. She discusses the views of Native Americans, Americans of European and African descent, residents of Northern insane asylums and Southern plantations, New England's clergy and missionaries overseas, and even proponents of Swedenborgianism and annihilationism. \u003cem\u003eDamned Nation \u003c\/em\u003eoffers a captivating account of an idea that played a transformative role in America's intellectual and cultural history.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Kathryn Gin Lum\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0199843112\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780199843114\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Oxford University Press, USA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/01\/2014\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 330\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.25lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.30h x 6.20w x 1.20d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/15\/2014\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 09\/15\/2014 pg. 85\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChristianity Today\u003c\/i\u003e 12\/01\/2014 pg. 67\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooks \u0026amp; Culture\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/01\/2015 pg. 19\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChristian Century\u003c\/i\u003e 10\/14\/2015 pg. 34","brand":"Kathryn Gin Lum","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":43992892309759,"sku":"9780199843114","price":40.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_1ed2a849-51a6-4611-b870-d9c8a4c57c3a.jpg?v=1683321385","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/damned-nation-kathryn-gin-lum-9780199843114","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}