The Root of All Evil: The Protestant Clergy and the Economic Mind of the Old South

In The Root of All Evil Kenneth Moore Startup looks to the sermons and writings of Protestant clergy to better understand the driving forces behind the antebellum southern economy. During this period of unprecedented American expansion, he finds, clerics of all denominations on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line displayed a remarkable unanimity in their condemnation of mammonism--the open pursuit of wealth, conspicuous consumption, lack of charity, and contempt of honest labor. This trend, the clergy argued, was diverting both North and South from their best interests and would ultimately destroy the nation. The Root of All Evil represents a challenge to any notion of an economically disinterested southern mind and culture by revealing an Old South in line ideologically with the mainstream of nineteenth-century capitalism, and also provides useful insights into southern religious life.

Author: Kenneth Moore Startup
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Published: 11/01/1997
Pages: 232
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.30lbs
Size: 9.37h x 6.35w x 0.89d
ISBN: 9780820319056

About the Author
Kenneth Moore Startup is a professor of history and academic dean at Williams Baptist College in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas.