In the mid-1700s, the potent theological and social forces driving modern Protestant evangelicalism merged. The result was the Great Awakening, a series of transatlantic revivals during which thousands embraced an experiential faith in which converts claimed individually to communicate with God through mental impressions. In the last thirty-five years, various socio-cultural historians have illustrated that eighteenth-century evangelicals radically challenged the Anglo-American social hierarchy, fostered egalitarian individualism and consequently encouraged the democratisation of America. Yet, the last academic to write a comprehensive history of the Great Awakening in the American colonies was the traditional church historian Edwin Gausted in 1957, and no socio-cultural historian has previously published such a work. Thomas Kidd bravely fills this void with his new synthesis, The Great Awakening: the roots of evangelical Christianity in colonial America.

Kidd explores revivals that took place from the Carolinas to New England between the 1730s and 1780s to create a coherent narrative of both the Awakening and the spread of evangelicalism. In doing so, he draws upon recent research to explore such wide-ranging topics as the impact of revivalism on slaves and Native Americans, the evangelicals' role in the American Revolution, and the evangelical challenge to Southern ideals of masculinity. However, he cannot simply rehash the current historiography and construct a logical account. Historians are deeply divided over the social significance of the American revivals. Catherine Brekus, Patricia Bonomi, Gary Nash and others insist that evangelicals promoted radical egalitarianism by empowering women, youth and other non-elites within their movement. In contrast, Jon Butler argues that preachers used the revivals to reinforce the traditional social hierarchy. Kidd resolves these divergent interpretations with a deceptively simple solution. He persuasively argues that the Awakening was simultaneously radical and conservative because different revivalists used their faith to defend a gamut of social attitudes. Evangelicals were united by their commitment to revivalism and experiential encounters with divinity but little else.

Consequently, Kidd alternates between depicting the spectrum of contemporary attitudes toward the Awakening and narrating the revivals' major events. He notes that at one end of the spectrum were anti-evangelicals, like Charles Chauncy, who feared the revivals for their socially subversive potential. At the other end were radical evangelicals who believed that God individually communicated with them through visions, dreams and other supernatural means to encourage them to disregard all social constraints. These included Mary Reed, who ignored the patriarchy by repeatedly prophesying before her New Hampshire congregation, and the illiterate Richard Woodbury, who used visions to justify his illegal itinerant ministry in New England. In the middle of the spectrum stood moderate evangelicals, like Jonathan Edwards, who used revivalism to strengthen lay deference to authority.

Kidd is most innovative when he narrates the struggle among eighteenth-century Americans to shape both the popular understanding and social effects of the Awakening. He cites newspapers, printed pamphlets and periodicals to illustrate the heated exchanges among moderates, radicals and anti-revivalists. His book brims with fascinating public debates, such as that which took place between the Anglican conservative Alexander Garden and moderate evangelical Josiah Smith during revivalist George Whitefield's tour through South Carolina. Garden argued that Whitefield sought to turn slaves against their masters. Smith countered that the enigmatic Whitefield simply sought to curtail the debauchery and sexual promiscuity of Charleston's planter elite. Smith clung to his conviction even after the radically-inclined Whitefield printed a tract blasting planters for their slaves' mistreatment.

Thus, Kidd broadly defines the Awakening not as isolated sets of revivals or even as a transatlantic spike in religious fervour but, rather, as a half century-long competition for dominance between advocates of vastly different worldviews. As a result, his book becomes an account of the evolution, legitimisation and proliferation of evangelicalism within American culture through the Revolution. This perspective is refreshing, although it would be enhanced if Kidd had widened his scope into a transatlantic analysis. Usually, the First and Second Great Awakenings are treated separately by historians, but Kidd chronologically bridges the gap between the two and argues that both were interlocking stages in the development of evangelicalism.

Unfortunately, Kidd's theme of evangelical diversity occasionally obscures the clarity of his account. Readers are offered so many different reactions to the revivals that Kidd's own voice is sometimes lost. Too often Kidd leaves readers with ambiguous assessments, such as his assertion that ‘despite the mixed motives of white missionaries, a handful of Native Americans accepted Christianity as … spiritually satisfying [my emphasis added]’ (p. 212).

Yet, despite his periodic lack of precision, Kidd's over-arching perspective remains imaginative. Most socio-cultural historians regard evangelical radicalism as a byproduct of broad economic or political transformations, like the spread of republican ideology and market capitalism. Such historians describe individuals, like Reed and Woodbury, as examples of evangelicals who used their faith to justify radical behaviour cultivated by latent social anxieties. In contrast, Kidd views evangelical beliefs as actual generators of cultural change. He especially highlights the agency of dreams, trances, miracles and other controversial elements of revivalist supernaturalism. The book is peppered with people whose ecstatic encounters with God inspired rebellious behaviour. It also emphasises the actions of moderate preachers, who restrained radical manifestations of spirituality in their congregations specifically to prevent social turmoil. Kidd exposes his own theological bias by asserting that evangelical beliefs inherently created a ‘powerful egalitarian impulse’ (p. 289), but moderate evangelicals allowed concerns for order and hierarchy to stifle the revolutionary tendencies of their faith. Such opinions reveal that Kidd is likely an evangelical himself, but also that he fairly critiques the movement's shortfalls.

Kidd's study is timely, given evangelicalism's continued influence in American culture and its escalating growth in Latin America and Africa. Understanding the movement's early development is the first step toward discerning its lasting appeal. Kidd creatively synthesises a wide range of recent historiography and, thus, provides fresh insight into early evangelicalism's inner workings and cultural impact on America. Historians, theologians and graduate students will all appreciate Kidd's ability to demonstrate the interconnectedness of the social and theological motives that drove the early evangelicals' behaviour.