Reviews of Secularism in Antebellum America

REVIEW: Janet Moore Lindman at The Journal of American History

“Modern not only expands our understanding of antebellum Protestantism but also thoroughly interrogates the prevailing historiography to present a startling and cogent statement about secularism and modernity in Victorian America. This short review cannot do justice to his sagacity … read on>“

REVIEW: Michael Warner at The Immanent Frame

“Modern has certainly deepened our understanding of the field, and his book illustrates strikingly how rapidly the analysis of secularity is emerging … read on >”

 REVIEW: Justine Murison at Common-Place

“historically rich and analytically keen . . . a luminous study of the discursive terrain and affective engagements of secularism in the first half of the nineteenth century … read on >”

 REVIEW: Leigh Eric Schmidt at Church History

“In the field of American religious history it is relatively rare to get such sustained engagement with Foucault’s genealogical method, Derrida’s hauntology, Talal Asad’s formations of the secular, or even Charles Taylor’s secular age. In turn, whether historians will want to engage Modern’s work will have a lot to do with how much they think they gain from participating in those larger theoretical discussions … read on>”

REVIEW: Vincent Lloyd at Political Theology

“For Modern, an important facet of the secular age is the distribution of agency over objects without regard to a distinction between animate and inanimate. Tracts are treated as agents having capacities and powers, but this agency comes about as part of a system, a network of circulating tracts, where humans and tracts alike are agentive nodes in the network.”

REVIEW: Journal of American Culture

“Modern’s work offers invaluable concepts, sources, and methodological blueprint …a refreshing treatise on historiography of American religion through textual analysis and theoretical employment … read on>“

REVIEW: Anthropology Review Database

“A fascinating and complex argument examines evangelical Christianity, phrenology, spiritualism, penology, and even early anthropology … read on >“