Unbridled passions threatened nineteenth-century America, a vulnerable young nation already feeling beset by foreigners, corruption, and disease. Purifying crusaders like Hamilton College philosophy professor and Presbyterian minister John W. Mears mobilized to fight every sin and carnal lure, from liquor to free love. In Upstate New York's famed Oneida Community, Mears encountered his stiffest challenge. Oneida's founder and patriarch, John Humphrey Noyes, oversaw a radical Christian commune where men and women sexually mingled through the practice of "complex marriage." While others struggled to dislodge the community that had evolved since 1848 into a successful business venture and congenial neighbor, it was Mears who, after years of trying, rallied New York's church and university leaders for a final, concerted anti-Oneida campaign.In The Ministers' War, Doyle traces the full story of Mears and the crusade against the Oneida Community. He explores the ways in which Mears's multipurpose zeal reflected the passions behind the nineteenth-century temperance movement, the fight against obscenity, and the public animus toward unconventional thought. As an author, political candidate, and controversialist, Mears was a prominent moralizer at a time when public morality seemed to be most at risk.
"Michael Doyle's The Minister's War weaves together the stories of two zealous religious figures who become entwined in a battle between their beliefs in the public and private sphere. The focus is on John W. Mears, a stodgy, prudish preacher and professor at Hamilton College who fought against many things, including the Oneida community. John Humphrey Noyes, founder of the Oneida community which
Rahima Schwenkbeck, Reading Religion
"Many books have been written about the Oneida Community, but to my knowledge, this is the first that examines the anti-Oneida Community movements that sprung up during the nineteenth century. Doyle has done a tremendous job of coloring in the personalities of the huge number of clergymen, politicians, Oneida Community members, and reporters that pepper the narrative."
Christian Goodwillie, director and curator of special collections and archives at the Burk
"A well-told story that will certainly be of interest to students of Oneida and others seeking a tightly focused case study of nineteenth-century moral reform."
