This book began over ten years ago in the mind of an anxious graduate student, and as in all such endeavors, over the years I have incurred innumerable debts to many wonderful people. While the ideas and arguments within these pages are largely mine, the strength of their articulation draws on untold hours of conversation with friends and mentors and innumerable instances of editing based on their comments.
I first want to honor James Roark, the man who taught me, by example, the meaning of the phrase “a gentleman and a scholar.” I will always be grateful for his consummate professionalism, his wise and gentle spirit, and the liberty he granted me to explore my interests wherever they led. I will forever cherish our many conversations about my research and academia in general. Much of the credit for any clarity of writing I achieve must be attributed to E. Brooks Holifield. Dr. Holifield taught me almost everything I know about good academic writing and how to teach it. I thank Leroy Davis for suggesting I visit the Rockefeller Archives Center. It turned out to be an unexpectedly profitable lead in more ways than one.
To my mentors from afar, Jack Blocker, Jr. and David Fahey, I thank you for graciously taking me under your wing, when you did not have to, and molding me into a temperance scholar. Your generous and selfless investment in my scholarship and career truly represents the best academia has to offer.
To those who have read all (Jack Blocker, Jr., Allison Dorsey, Jack Shuler) or parts (Jacqueline Jones, David Fahey, Paul Yandle, Joseph Moore, John Thabiti Willis) of this work in one form or another and provided much generous feedback, a great big thank you! Also, thanks to the anonymous NIU Press reviewers who both praised and challenged me. I really struggled with some of your advice, but I needed it.
One of the unexpected pleasures encountered while writing this book has been to make the acquaintance of Linda Bryan, who, like myself, is a former secondary school teacher. Your enthusiasm for research, great memory, generous spirit, and incredible editing skills are truly amazing and greatly appreciated.
The number of librarians and archivists I’ve worked with for over a decade now is staggering. Archivists are truly a historian’s best friend. Their consistent attentiveness to my ever evolving—and sometimes revolving—research was indispensable.
Thank you Mark, Susan, and the whole NIU Press team for your patience and kindness as I bombarded you with tons of questions. Your timely email responses made the process manageable.
A major part of writing this book has been a seemingly endless series of research trips that almost invariably ended too soon. I have traveled to over 20 archives and research libraries in over half a dozen states to pursue what was supposed to be a “local” research project. On most of these trips, old friends and new have graciously housed me for days—and on occasion, weeks—to defray my research expenses. I owe you all many thanks for putting up with what I am sure were excessively loquacious answers to little-more-than-courteous and perfunctory inquiries about my research. My sincerest gratitude goes to Stacy and Lily Boyd, Dan and Donna Cassidy, Ken and Lori Hoogstra, Jim and Danalee Littel, Bishop David and Rose Karaya, Frank and Jenae McKnight, Rabbi George and Debbie Stern, and Georgia Williams.
I am also thankful for those organizations who believed in me enough to support financially my research: the Rockefeller Archives Center, the Emory University History Department, the Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History, the American Congregational Association/Boston Athenæum Fellowship program, and North Greenville University.
In the spring of 2011 I taught an upper level seminar called “Religion and Reform in Nineteenth-Century America.” I had a small group of dedicated, passionate students who made the three-hour class “fly by” every Tuesday evening. They read through every chapter of my manuscript and bravely interrogated my thinking and the articulation of my ideas, ultimately making for a better book. You all were awesome: Sam Andrews, Kimberly Friedrichs, Anna Hoxie, Emily Hoffman, Dianna Murray, and Sarah Scott.
But most of all, I thank my parents, my Aunt Martha, and my wife, Robin, for your prayers and support. I love you all very much. I couldn’t have written this book without you.