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R. Laurence MooreReligious Outsiders and the Making of Americans

R. Laurence Moore’s Religious Outsiders and the Making of Americans is a well-written study of the contributions made by various religious movements in the United States. Moore believes that as religious outsiders “made themselves, they made America,” and he examines many assumed “outsider groups” with the hope of detecting precisely why the movements emerged and subsequently survived. Moore’s introduction is a great survey of the various historical portraits of diversity and sectarianism in the past two hundred and fifty years of the United States.

Moore seems to value the movements he surveys primarily as novelties and tries to downplay the “gulfs” Americans “invent” to distinguish themselves. As Moore is minimizing the significance of difference, he seeks a reason for each group, since his book hinges on this idea. About the Mormons, for instance, Moore claims that it was the “impulse” they “represented that made their story important.” Many times, Mo...

Posted by: Sean Wilson

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