© Columbia University Press
The Chautauqua Moment: Protestants, Progressives, and the Culture of Modern Liberalism, 1874-1920
December, 2003
Cloth, 416 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-12642-7
$45.00
/ £26.50
"Rieser's study supersedes all other accounts about Chautauqua, the places, and the fabled cultural movement connected with it . . . Recommended." — Choice
"Andrew C. Rieser breaks new ground in his sophisticated and exhaustive treatment of Chautauqua. Rieser's breadth of topics is impressive." — Robert D. Johnson, The Journal of American History
"As the first critical analysis of this influential social movement, this book makes an important contribution to our understanding of the process of creation of white, middle-class identity and the assertion of the hegemony by that class." — The Annals of Iowa
"The Chautauqua Moment is a rich, multi-faceted exploration of one of the... Most influential and elusive movements... Students of state history will learn much from The Chautauqua Moment." — Thomas N. Baker, New York History
"Destined to be a seminal text not only on the Chautauqua moment but also on... the progressive-era white middle class." — Amy Kittelstrom, Reviews in American History
"Rieser winsomely and insightfully presents and analyzes the flaws, the merits, and the contradictions... of the Chautauqua movement." — Paul Hillmer, H-Net Reviews
"The Chautauqua Moment is studded with insights about both cultural and political history and is as elegantly crafted as a Gilded Age mansion. Finally, we have a book worthy of an institution that, in its long heyday, taught, entertained, and influenced a majority of Americans." — Michael Kazin, Georgetown University
"A captivating, convincing, and fresh analysis of one of the most important cultural institutions of late-19th and early-20th century America." — David A. Hollinger, University of California, Berkeley
"The book is outstanding. The Chautauqua movement was a dominant force in the religious, political and cultural life of the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As such, it deserves the brilliant and penetrating history that Andrew Rieser has here provided. More cogently, 'the original Chautauqua'must now face and respond to the sharp critique that Rieser brings, for his critique applies even more forcibly in contemporary American religion, culture, and politics than it did a century and more ago." — Ross Mackenzie, Former Historian, The Chautauqua Institution