The Enlightenment in national context Book

The beginning and end of the book was a myriad of religious complexity. Only a serious student of the American history of religious sects could decipher, let alone comprehend all the various denominations and their subsets. I have no doubt of the importance of religious passion and thought on the American experience. Nor do I contest that those most active in religious positioning were also leading contributors to Enlightenment debates. I simply found the author failed to provide clear and concise categorizations of these groups and their over-arching effect on American Enlightenment as whole. Maybe it was there, but for me, if it was, it was buried too deep in the hay to find the needle.

I did appreciate a number of insights the book brought forward.

I learned more of Thomas Paine and his post-Revolutionary effect on others, especially Jefferson. I found fascinating the argument which posits that the religious reawakening and consolidation after 1790 contributed to the maintenance of slavery in the south. May believes that the revival of Christian enthusiasm in a more consolidated religious community supported conformity in moral and social views that gave permission to people to rationalize support for slavery.

May did a fine job of dividing the roughly 100 year period of 1720 -1820 into classifications of Enlightenment thought. His arguments for their varying levels of effect were cogent. The concept the immediate pre-Revolutionary period as being "moderate" was surprising but when explained sensible.

I'm glad I read Henry May's book. There is little available on the subject of the American Enlightenment.