Review by Choice Review
Glenn (American history, Elmira College) has written the first full biography of Thomas Beecher, a lesser-known member of the famous family and a long-time pastor in Elmira, New York. His biographer states that "in a family of non-conformists [he] was perhaps most non-conformist of all." Thomas opposed many of the progressive positions of his family, especially abolitionism, prohibition, and women's rights. Yet he was not just reactionary, for he struck out at the abuses of capitalism and class stratification and pioneered social mission work to the poor. Thomas was also influential in ordaining a woman, Annis Eastman, as pastor in 1889. Like many of his contemporaries, he struggled with the new economic and political realities of 19th-century America; personally, he struggled with his father's powerful influence and his more famous siblings' success. Not only a fascinating study of one pastor's struggle with a changing America, this work adds appreciably to understanding the entire Beecher family. Libraries would find this a helpful addition to such works as Milton Rugoff's The Beechers (CH, Nov'81) and useful in the areas of American religious and intellectual history. Upper-division undergraduate; graduate; faculty. M. A. Granquist; St. Olaf College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
