Religion and Society in Frontier California

by Laruie F. Maffly-Kipp and Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp

Book Overview

The chaotic and reputedly immoral society of the California mining frontier during the gold rush period greatly worried Protestant evangelicals from the Northeast, and they soon sent missionaries westward to transplant their religious institutions, beliefs, and practices in the area. This book tells the story of that enterprise, showing how it developed, why it failed, and what patterns of religious adherence evolved in the West in place of evangelical...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300206445
• ISBN13: 9780300206449
• Release Date: November 2013
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 252 Pages
• Weight: 0.86 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A good book for the right audience

Based on the author's dissertation, the book is a scholarly study of the American Home Missions Society's efforts to send ministers to Gold-Rush California to establish Protestant churches there as a counter to the disorder in the new state. The author concludes that booming California turned out to be a new and different environment in which old evangelizing techniques so successful in the farming Midwest did not work. Missionaries tried to explain this to their superiors in the east, who were slow to appreciate California's unique Gold Rush society, and missionaries were on their own to come up with new ways to appeal to their California audience. Those looking for an entertaining popular history of the Rush will be disappointed, but scholars of the West or of religious history, the intended audience, will find it a solid study. History enthusiasts wishing to delve deep into 19th-century religious history or Western history may find it of interest also, as it is not turgid in style.