Visions of Zion Christianity, Modernization and the American Pursuit of Liberty Progessivism in Rural Nelson and Washington Counties Kentucky

by Hood, J. Larry

• ISBN13: 9780761830658
• ISBN10: 0761830650
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-02-24
• Publisher: UPA

Summary

Three decades after the Civil War-amidst a resurgent patriotic fervor, a new Christian Awakening and an enveloping modernization promising heretofore unimagined heights of prosperity and well-being-a new generation of Americans in rural Nelson and Washington Counties, Kentucky, were experiencing what Lincoln in their fathers' war had promised: a new birth of freedom. Before them they saw the ancient vision of Zion, America as the new Promised Land, the Christian Republic, the Shining City on a Hill, shedding its light of prosperity and freedom on all. Their destiny and calling, they had no doubt, was to secure liberty and its blessings for themselves and posterity. This was the Vision and the hope that united them as a people and as a crusading army at home and abroad, inspiring a multitude of social and political reforms and drawing them into the Great War of 1914-1918. It is this story that Visions of Zion tells-of dreams that united and divided, that lifted up and brought low-a story of a drive for everlasting peace that led to war and that finally ends with the collapse of Zion and fading of all those wondrous dreams of a better world.

Author Biography

J. Larry Hood is Adjunct Professor of History at the University of Kentucky.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(8)
At the Turn of the Century	9	(7)
The Promised Land: Nelson and Washington Counties, 1784--1900	16	(23)
Just Beyond the Far Horizon: Progress, Prosperity, and Power, 1900--1914	39	(21)
By Faith We Shall See It: Strengthening the Individual, the Family, the Community and Nation, 1900--1914	60	(20)
Marching to Zion: Progressivism's Further Advance, 1914--1917	80	(27)
Onward Christian Soldiers: Reformation of the World through War, 1917--1918	107	(17)
Progressivism Triumphant: The Long Awaited Day, 1917--1918	124	(25)
No Road Home: Turning the Progressive Crusade Around, 1918--1921	149	(16)
The Collapse of Zion: The Fading Dream of a Better World, 1918--1921	165	(24)
And the Ages Roll---A Summing Up	189	(10)
Postscript	199	(4)
Appendix: Nelson and Washington Counties as a Case Study in Progressivism	203	(20)
Maps	223	(4)
Endnotes	227	(46)
Bibliography	273	(16)
Index	289