Inventing the "Great Awakening" Paperback – January 23, 2001

This is a very thorough and well written analysis of the first Great Awakening. Lambert's point of departure is a fairly narrow point of historiography, the existence of the Great Awakening. Some scholars have argued recently that the Great Awakening was actually only one of a series of local revivals in Colonial America and that the concept of an inter-colonial Great Awakening was imposed retrospectively by 19th century American evangelicals looking for a 'usable' past. Lambert examines the evidence for a Great Awakening as traditionally conceived, its origins, dynamics, and conclusion. Lambert reasserts the existence of the Great Awakening as an inter-colonial event. While it was triggered by and preceded by local revivals in parts of New England and the middle colonies, several features, including the important role of itinerant preachers like the famous George Whitefield, the use of proto-modern publicity, the sense of a general phenomenon, and its trans-Atlantic character, were all novel. Lambert shows well how the Great Awakening began with groups with well established revival traditions, notably New England Puritans and some Presbyterian groups of Scots origin. These movements became linked with a broader reform movement in England led by the Oxford Methodists and with revival movements in Scotland. The trans-Atlantic character of these movements served to reverberate and amplify the significance of events on each side of the Atlantic. The robust print culture of the greater British world made possible the linkages and innovations characteristic of the Great Awakening. Lambert shows well how the Great Amakening was a planned, not spontaneous event. Implicit in his narrative is the sense that the Great Awakening was a crucial factor in the development of an American religous marketplace in which the laity play the key role of discriminating consumers. Recommend strongly for those interested in colonial America.

This book presented a much different perspective than the other research I have done. Most useful and changed the entire tone of my 30 page paper for my graduate class. SO glad I bought it!

The type is very small. Reading it for an elderly person like me is a formidable challenge. Why would someone publish a book with print so small that anyone with less than perfect vision would find it discouraging to read?

The only inventing uncovered by this book is the inventing that Frank Lambert did in weaving together what he claims are historical facts to showcase his obvious disdain for things Christian and any Christian influence on the history of the United States. He cannot possibly objectively write about something that he does not in anyway understand and that he clearly abhores. Frank Lambert fancies himself an historian but he is nothing more than a propagandist plying his craft on unsuspecting but predesposed readers.