During the 1830s the United States experienced a wave of movements for social change over temperance, the abolition of slavery, anti-vice activism, and a host of other moral reforms. Michael Young argues for the first time in "Bearing Witness against Sin" that together they represented a distinctive new style of mobilization--one that prefigured contemporary forms of social protest by underscoring the role of national religious structures and cultural schemas.

In this book," " Young identifies a new strain of protest that challenged antebellum Americans to take personal responsibility...