E-grāmata: Beechers: America's Most Influential Family

"Obbie Tyler Todd's The Beechers is a biography of one of the most influential families in American history as well as the first biography of the Beecher family in over 40 years. The book combines elements of intellectual, religious, political, and social history. Tracing the life and career of Lyman Beecher, the patriarch, and concluding with the death of Isabella Beecher Hooker, the youngest of the eleven children, The Beechers is the first true chronological history of the family. Together, the Beechers represent the triumphs and tragedies of nineteenth-century America. Placing the Beechers in the context of larger events and movements in American history, this book also examines the beliefs and principles that tethered such a diverse group of people.The Beechers were the most famous religious family in America throughout the nineteenth century, composed of famous preachers, presidents, novelists, abolitionists, suffragists, and pioneers in women's education. However, they did not believe the same things about God, humanity, or the nation itself. Chronicling the lives of all eleven siblings, Todd's study explains the phenomenon of "Beecherism" as it was common understood by their friends and foes alike. The Beechers were obsessed with the concept of influence, namely "moral influence." Even when they were divided on issues of race, gender, and religion, moral and social reform became the family business. Rejecting the Puritan religion of their father, Lyman Beecher's children shared his optimistic view of humanity and of history as well as his grand vision of a Christian republican society"--

The Reverend Lyman Beecher was once called “the father of more brains than any other man in America.” Among his eleven living children were a celebrity novelist, a college president, the most well-known preacher in America, a suffragist, a radical abolitionist, a pioneer in women’s education, and the founder of home economics. Rejecting many of their father’s Puritan beliefs, the deeply religious Beechers nevertheless embraced his quest to exert moral influence. They disagreed over issues of slavery, women’s rights, and religion and found themselves at the center of race riots, denominational splits, college protests, a civil war, and one of the most public sex scandals in American history. They were nonetheless unified in their “Beecherism”—a phrase used to describe their sense of self-importance in reforming the nation.

Obbie Tyler Todd’s masterful work is the first biography of the Beechers in more than forty years and the first chronological portrait of one of the most influential families in nineteenth-century America.