The Root of All Evil: The Protestant Clergy and the Economic Mind of the Old South

by Kenneth Moore Startup

Overview

In The Root of All Evil Kenneth Moore Startup looks to the sermons and writings of Protestant clergy to better understand the driving forces behind the antebellum southern economy. During this period of unprecedented American expansion, he finds, clerics of all denominations on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line displayed a remarkable unanimity in their condemnation of mammonism—the open pursuit of wealth, conspicuous consumption, lack of charity, and contempt of honest labor. This trend, the clergy argued, was diverting both North and South from their best interests and would ultimately destroy the nation. The Root of All Evil represents a challenge to any notion of an economically disinterested southern mind and culture by revealing an Old South in line ideologically with the mainstream of nineteenth-century capitalism, and also provides useful insights into southern religious life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780820319056
Publisher:	University of Georgia Press
Publication date:	11/01/1997
Pages:	232
Sales rank:	326,741
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.89(d)

About the Author

KENNETH MOORE STARTUP is a professor of history and academic dean at Williams Baptist College in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas.

KENNETH MOORE STARTUP is a professor of history and academic dean at Williams Baptist College in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas.

Editorial Reviews

An engaging, focused examination of economic issues that preoccupied the Protestant clergy, primarily what they considered the root of all evil—mammonism; i.e., 'avarice, covetousness and materialism.'

Civil War History - John M. Ysursa

A significant contribution to our understanding of the religious experience in the Old South and of the regional culture generally.

author of The Southern Tradition: The Achievement and Limitations of American Conservatism - Eugene D. Genovese

Given the centrality of religious writings to antebellum southern readers, it is remarkable that this body of literature has had to wait until now to receive such an analysis.

Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill - David Moltke-Hansen

"A significant contribution to our understanding of the religious experience in the Old South and of the regional culture generally."--Eugene D. Genovese, author of The Southern Tradition: The Achievement and Limitations of American Conservatism

"Given the centrality of religious writings to antebellum southern readers, it is remarkable that this body of literature has had to wait until now to receive such an analysis."--David Moltke-Hansen, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

"An engaging, focused examination of economic issues that preoccupied the Protestant clergy, primarily what they considered the root of all evil—mammonism; i.e., 'avarice, covetousness and materialism.'"--John M. Ysursa, Civil War History

From the Publisher