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Business of the Heart

Religion and Emotion in the Nineteenth Century

John Corrigan author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:University of California Press

Published:8th Jan '02

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Business of the Heart cover

The "Businessmen's Revival" was a religious revival that unfolded in the wake of the 1857 market crash among white, middle-class Protestants. Delving into the religious history of Boston in the 1850s, John Corrigan gives an imaginative and wide-ranging interpretive study of the revival's significance. He uses it as a focal point for addressing a spectacular range of phenomena in American culture: the ecclesiastical and business history of Boston; gender roles and family life; the history of the theater and public spectacle; education; boyculture; and, especially, ideas about emotion during this period. This vividly written narrative recovers the emotional experiences of individuals from a wide array of little-used sources including diaries, correspondence, public records, and other materials. From these sources, Corrigan discovers that for these Protestants, the expression of emotion was a matter of transactions. They saw emotion as a commodity, and conceptualized relations between people, and between individuals and God, as transactions of emotion governed by contract. Religion became a business relation with God, with prayer as its legal tender. Entering this relationship, they were conducting the "business of the heart." This innovative study shows that the revival--with its commodification of emotional experience--became an occasion for white Protestants to underscore differences between themselves and others. The display of emotion was a primary indicator of membership in the Protestant majority, as much as language, skin color, or dress style. As Corrigan unravels the significance of these culturally constructed standards for emotional life, his book makes an important contribution to recent efforts to explore the links between religion and emotion, and is an important new chapter in the history of religion.

"John Corrigan's book is a terrific study of religion, emotion and society in the nineteenth century." - Joyce Appleby, Professor of History, University of California at Los Angeles; "This is an important contribution to American religious and cultural history. Corrigan draws together interpretive angles from social, intellectual, and religious history, as well as from the emergent field of the history of the emotions, in which he is doing pathbreaking work." - Peter W. Williams, Distinguished Professor of American Studies and Comparative Religion, Miami University; "Corrigan does much more than research and describe the religious revival of 1857-58. He gives us an imaginative and wide-ranging interpretative study of the revival's significance. He addresses an extraordinary range of phenomena - the turns of the business cycle in the 1850s, the social and ecclesiastical history of Boston, immigration and ethnic history, sex role differentiation, and the vexing problem of why males find it difficult to express their emotions. Altogether, I find this a fascinating, rewarding, and highly original new book." - Daniel Walker Howe, Rhodes Professor of History, Oxford University"

ISBN: 9780520221963

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 33mm

Weight: 680g

401 pages