Shakerism's Long Struggle for Survival and Respect, 1774-2008: A Miscellany on a Unique American Re
The volume is an anthology of biography, autobiography, commentary, criticism, and narrative fiction that taken together go far in outlining the Shaker experience in America.
The author/editor, a Shaker scholar (HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF THE SHAKERS. 2000) uses several means to delineate the nature of Shakerism, the character of its founder, Ann Lee, issues with which the sect had constantly to deal, such as apostasy, the causes of the rapid and devastating decline of its membership beginning c. 1850, and the counter culture's responses to Shakerism, especially in selected narrative fiction.
At last report, 2006, only four Shakers were extant at the last viable Sha
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The author/editor, a Shaker scholar (HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF THE SHAKERS. 2000) uses several means to delineate the nature of Shakerism, the character of its founder, Ann Lee, issues with which the sect had constantly to deal, such as apostasy, the causes of the rapid and devastating decline of its membership beginning c. 1850, and the counter culture's responses to Shakerism, especially in selected narrative fiction.
At last report, 2006, only four Shakers were extant at the last viable Shaker village, Sabbathday Lake, New Gloucester, Maine. Their number is less than that of the first Shakers who landed at New York harbor in 1774. However, in the last sixty years, they have achieved respect, although exactly why can be debated.
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8/30/2008 04:46 PM PT