Convulsed States
Earthquakes, Prophecy, and the Remaking of Early America
By Jonathan Todd Hancock
204 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 2 halftones, 2 maps, 3 graphs, notes, bibl., index
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Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4696-6218-3
Published: April 2021 -
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4696-6217-6
Published: April 2021 -
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4696-6219-0
Published: February 2021
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- Hardcover $95.00
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Through varied peoples' efforts to come to grips with the New Madrid earthquakes, Hancock reframes early nineteenth-century North America as a site where all of its inhabitants wrestled with fundamental human questions amid prophecies, political reinventions, and war.
About the Author
Jonathan Todd Hancock is associate professor of history at Hendrix College.
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Reviews
"An incredibly impressive debut monograph, one that will benefit greatly the religious historians of the early American republic. Hancock should be applauded for his exhaustive archival research and careful examination of the varieties and nuances of Christian and Native religiosity. By using the New Madrid earthquakes as a window into the world of early Americans, Hancock demonstrates how religion remained a powerful vehicle in the struggle for the North American continent."--Reading Religion
“Hancock has produced an impressively researched and lucidly written history that will be of interest to readers of all kinds.”--Cynthia A. Kierner, George Mason University
“An innovative work that offers fascinating new insights into early American politics, religion, intellectual history, and the history of science.”--Christina Snyder, Pennsylvania State University
“In this lively, readable account of the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811 and 1812, Jonathan Todd Hancock shows how profoundly spiritual interpretations of the natural world shaped the political and military conflicts of the early nineteenth century. Drawing on wide research, Hancock argues that spirituality was critical to nation-building by factions within the United States and Cherokee, Creek, Shawnee, and other Indigenous communities. Convulsed States will be of great interest to readers from seismologists to sociologists, from historians of Native America to historians of science. Hancock demonstrates the environmental and spiritual grounding for American seizures of Native land and traces the contrasting role of religious authority in the communities struggling for land and power across the vast terrain shaken by these mighty quakes.”—Conevery Valencius, Boston College