Darkness Falls on the Land of Light

“The most compelling history of the Awakening in New England we have. . . . Nowhere else in studies of religious practice in early America is social behavior so thoroughly mapped. And nowhere else have vernacular descriptions of religious experience been so acutely analyzed.”—David D. Hall, Church History

“By parsing the distinctive vocabularies and rich tropes that ordinary New Englanders devised to describe their tumult within, [Winiarski] lends freshness and immediacy to the familiar narrative of the Awakening.”—Christine Heyrman, Reviews in American History

“An exhaustive survey of the religious lives of eighteenth-century New Englanders. . . . [Winiarski’s] book provides one story after another, almost all of them fascinating glimpses into the lives of ordinary families. I would expect that anyone interested in eighteenth-century life would enjoy perusing this book, whether they were specialists in the Great Awakenings or not.”—H-Net Reviews

“Winiarski brings new life to eighteenth-century religion. Perhaps as significantly, he sets a high bar for the use of compelling narrative and imaginative prose in the writing of early American history. . . . [T]hrough his expert presentation of lived experience, he has at last made the stories of the awakened as compelling as those of the awakeners.”—Peter Manseau, Journal of the American Academy of Religion

“Essential reading for students of early American ‘evangelicalism.’'—Patheos

“Admirably models how the methods and gaze of lived religion can expand and humanize well established narratives.”—Reading Religion

“Winiarski’s breathtaking research and writing share the vocabularies and religious experiences through richly analyzed extended examples.”—American Historical Review

“A remarkable scholarly achievement. . . . Winiarski embeds the religious lives of New Englanders firmly in their world and readers are provided with a narrative that weaves the colonists’ religious experiences into the fabric of their lives. . . . [A] magnificent work of history that greatly enriches our understanding of a subject that has already received considerable scholarly attention.”—Anglican and Episcopal History

“The scope of Winiarski’s research is remarkable, far surpassing the work of other historians before him.”—Southeastern Theological Review

“Winiarski weaves together biographies of believers seeking spiritual refreshment and by turns finding in New England’s established religion a font of joy or an empty, arid, and spiritless desert. Essential.”—CHOICE