Date

8-9-2024

Department

College of Arts and Sciences

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in History (PhD)

Chair

Matthew S. Hill

Keywords

Benevolent Empire, Early Antebellum Reform, Antebellum Institutionalization, Print Culture, National Charity Publishers, Mass Media, Early Republic, New York City, New American Merchants, Benevolent Elite, Missions Movement, American Evangelicalism, Protestant Christianity, Moral Reform, Benevolent Reform, Education Reform

Disciplines

History | History of Christianity

Abstract

Print Culture in New York: The Essence of the Benevolent Empire from 1816 to 1837 is a story that places technological and organizational business innovations at the center of the American evangelical print culture of the "Benevolent Empire" during the Early Republic. After about 1815, during the "market revolution" (western expansion, eastern urbanization, and boom in trade and manufacturing), the business of benevolence boomed in religious publishing that inspired American merchants and prominent businessmen to consolidate hundreds of missionary, Bible, and tract societies. The consolidation process resulted in the creation of national benevolent societies that produced the first wave of mass media. In New York City, the new communications center of the nation, the headquarters of the Benevolent Empire, was built by a new class of wealthy businessmen and American merchants who were diverse in their economic activities and humanitarian work. Print Culture in New York is a story about the corporate moral character and savvy business fortitude of the benevolent elite who constructed national benevolent societies to produce the first wave of mass media that was part of a global Bible, tract, and mission movement. Defying the literary market by distributing pamphlets, Bibles, and religious literature at cost or often for free, the national charity publishers administrated a national distribution network that promoted conversion from sin and translated benevolent action into moral reform in local and regional communities.

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