The Dissenters: Volume II: The Expansion of Evangelical Nonconformity: (The Dissenters)

The expansion of Evangelical Nonconformity was one of the most important developments in English and Welsh history in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In eighty years the number of Nonconformist chapels increased ten-fold, and by 1851, nearly one person in five worshipped in such chapels. For millions of people the gospel preached and the religion practised in these chapels determined their choice of marriage partners, conditioned the upbringing of their children, and moulded their family life. Religion pervaded education, shaped morals, controlled leisure, provided music and literature, motivated philanthropy and decided political loyalties. In this, the second of a projected three-volume history of Dissent, Michael Watts argues that while the Quakers constituted an increasingly wealthy but numerically declining community of businessmen, farmers, and retailers, and that in many towns the Unitarians formed a vibrant, progressive, intellectual élite, the appeal of Nonconformity was primarily to the poor, the ill-educated, and the unsophisticated. The working-class adherents of Evangelical Nonconformity vastly outnumbered those of political radicalism, trade unionism, or Chartism, and Dissent was a major factor in making a section of the working class respectable, thus contributing to the social harmony of the 1850s and 1860s. The history of late Georgian and Victorian England and Wales, argues Dr Watts, cannot be understood without a knowledge of Nonconformity.

Review :
`a book which (like the first volume) will prove of indispensable assistance to students working in this as well as cognate fields for a long time to come ... it is a first-class achievement and needs to be judged by the best standards ... This will provide sustenance for years to come. May he complete his enterprise before the world of Dissent is sucked uncomplainingly into the ecumenical Hoover.' W.R. Ward, Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society, Volume 50, Part 6, October 1996 `Its uniqueness lies not only in its content, the conscious attempt to present statistical data to back up the conclusions, but above all it surveys a field which hitherto has not been covered in an academic and easily readable presentation ... comprehensive and valuable work ... Mr. Watts writes well and the book is a pleasure to read ... there is much challenging material here for any historian of the churches in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to consider ... a superb achievement by Michael Watts with his trinity of works. He is to be congratulated especially for the stimulation he will undoubtedly provide to his readers.' Alan Ruston, Transactions of the Unitarian Historical Society, Vol. XXI, No. 3, April 1997 `a book which ... will prove of indispensable assistance to students working in this as well as cognate fields for a long time to come. The author lays under contribution an enormous amount of source material as well as modern scholarship both published and unpublished ... it is a first-class achievement and needs to be judged by the best standards.' W.R. Ward, Ecclesiastical History, Vol 48, No. 1 - Jan '97 `this book is by any standards a formidable scholarly achiement, distinguished by the lucidity of its writing and by the care with which its conclusions are set out. Watts has brought together his remarkable knowledge of nonconformist print in the nineteenth century with a painstaking analysis of the available statistical data to produce a study which will help to alter the impression created by many historians who produced books in the 1970s and 1980s ... that evangelical nonconformity appealed chiefly to the self-improving artisanry of the early industrial revolution. Watts has nobly committed himself. Volume three will nevertheless be eagerly awaited by all who value meticulous and careful scholarship of the highest order.' David Hempton, The Queen's University of Belfast, The Economic History Review, Volume L, No. 3, August 1997 `massive, fact-laden tome ... There is much not only to read, but to ponder, in this big book.' Books & Culture, September/October 1996 `this book is by any standards a formidable scholarly achievement, distinguished by the lucidity of its writing and by the care with which its conclusions are set out. ... Watts has brought together his remarkable knowledge of nonconformist print in the nineteenth century with a painstaking analysis of the available statistical data to produce a study which will help to alter the impression created by many historians who produced books in the 1970s and 1980s (myself included) that evangelical nonconformity appealed chiefly to the self-improving artisanry of the early industrial revolution. ... Volume three will ... be eagerly awaited by all who value meticulous and careful scholarship of the highest order.' The Economic History Review, vol.L, no.3, August 1997 `a massive work of scholarship dealing with the period 1791-1859 and drawing illuminatingly on a mass of regional evidence for the Dissenting communities and their expansion, as well as politics, dissidence and respectability; useful appendices and distribution maps. A tour de force.' Northern History, 33 `this book is by any standards a formidable scholarly achievement, distinguished by the lucidity of its writing and by the care with which its conclusions are set out ... Michael Watts has brought together his remarkable knowledge of Nonconformist print in the nineteenth century with a painstaking analysis of the available statistical data to produce a study which will help to alter the impression created by many historians who produced books in the 1970s and 1980s ... that evangelical Nonconformity appealed chiefly to the self-improving artisanry of the early industrial revolution ... impressive study.' David Hempton, Queen's University, Belfast, The Historical Association 1997