Walters, Ronald. American Reformers, 1815-1960.

Walters, Ronald. American Reformers, 1815-1960. New York: Hill and Wang, 1978.

The main purpose of American Reformers is to reconstruct the story of reformers who tried to change what they considered the wrongs of the society in antebellum America. Walters defines reformers as "those who wish to improve individuals or existing social, economic and political arrangements" (xii). Unlike radicals, reformers did not aim for changing the structure of the society, but for bettering it. Several events and factors triggered the emergence of reformers in the first half of the nineteenth century in America. When the War of 1892 was over, many men and women, inspired by theological as well as economic developments, began to realize that individual efforts could make a difference. Especially, the religious revival of 1820s convinced many Americans that it was godly to be good persons and strive for bettering the society since millennium was, it was believed, around the corner.

There were other causes of the emergence of reformers. For one, the population growth, buttressed by massive immigration from Europe, affected family patterns, and thus many women also became reformers for change. Rise in the standard of living was another cause of the reformist development. Many men and women could afford the luxury of entering social activism due to prosperity and the availability of higher income and education. Technological development facilitated these processes, as it became much cheaper to propagate an idea thanks to innovations in printing. No less important was the nature of politics at the time. The era witnessed the end of the Federalist Party, the emergence of the Democratic Party, the rise and fall of the Whig Party, anti-slavery position of the Republican Party under the leadership of charismatic Abraham Lincoln, and the short-lived activities of small parties such as the Anti-Masonic, Liberty, Free-Soil, and Know-Nothing.

Walters argues that reformers were not deviants or cranks, nor were they naive. Reformers were products of their time, and they were simply responding to political and societal changes. For many reformers reform was almost like a religious conversion, satisfying their spiritual and societal needs. And most of the reformers were of younger age though in some instances they pressed for conservative reforms. Reformers of the nineteenth century were different from their predecessors in the eighteenth century in believing, unlike their predecessors, that the change could be brought about from the bottom up, that it should come form the individual. In contrast to their predecessors, reformers of the nineteenth century were anti-elitist. Therefore, many reformers championed abolitionism, women's rights, temperance, and institutional reforms for the socially disadvantaged: the poor, the insane, the uneducated, and even criminals. Walters does not suggest that all reform movements were liberating. They could be repressive too, as some reformers advocated slavery.

Walters places significant emphasis on Protestant Evangelicalism, which he puts at the heart of social forces which inspired reformers the strongest. But with the Civil War, which killed the most emotional cause for reformers to pursue -- that is, abolition of slavery -- and industrialization of the Gilded Age era, millennial and religious views gave way to secular modes of understanding human nature. People began to reject that morality was absolute, develop tolerance for diversity, and champion equality for African-Americans and women.