Summary Of Cosmos Crumbling

In, “Cosmos Crumbling: American Reform and the Religious Imagination,” Robert Abzug sets out to explain the reform movements in America from the Revolution to the middle of the nineteenth century. Many historians have written about antebellum reform before, but in this book Abzug takes a different approach, where he treats antebellum reform as religious movements with primarily religious concerns and origins.

While “Cosmos Crumbling” has a great premise, it can sometimes be hard to follow Abzug’s thesis. Michael Perko stated in a review that, “Abzug’s continual use of terms like ‘cosmology’ and ‘ritual’ without ever attempting to define them is also troubling in several respects… Without a precise definition it is hard to evaluate the book’s