The essays presented in this volume represent the best in classic and recent historical scholarship on American Methodism. The accent falls on United Methodism in the U.S. and the traditions contributory to it. These essays provide new perspectives and fresh readings on important Methodist topics; they open up new avenues for Methodist self-understanding; they give indepth or case-study attention to subjects that overviews must slight. Seveal of these essays look at standardthemes in Methodist historiography and do so in classic intellectual history style. A number exhibit relatively new methods and/or attend to topics previously unexplored or underexplored. Several, for instance, belong to the field of social history. They draw our attention away from elites, from doctrine, from the clergy. Instead, they examine how and in what ways Methodism appealed to the common folk and how it configured itself as a folk movement. Similar findings derive from the number of essays that explore gener, women's roles, the family and women's organizations.
