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God and the Atlantic: America, Europe, and the Religious Divide. By Howard. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. ix + 256 pp. $45.00 cloth.

some scholars’ “ahistorical effort” to “apply late-twentieth-century standards to nineteenth-century Shaker life” (161), is her regular application of contemporary feminist and other approaches. For instance, when writing about Shakers’ androgynous divinity, Wergland cites Merlin Stone’s questionable claim that the male-dominated “Judeo-Christian tradition” was a reaction to “earlier goddess worship, wherein women had both spiritual and political power” in order to argue, incorrectly, that religions that worship a goddess favor human women (43). Or when writing about the Era of Manifestations, she detours into sociological, psychological, and anthropological explanations regarding spirit possession and mental illness. In spite of several such disruptive and unnecessary insertions, the book really shines when it plunges into the intricacies of everyday Shaker life. It guides readers deep into the lived world of Believers: we can feel the uncomfortable pinch of the cap on one’s head, the frustrations of a kitchen sister with a brother who cadged snacks when he should have been outdoors working, and the exuberance of girls at play on a maple sugaring outing. Ultimately, Wergland makes a strong case for the many ways, both subtle and direct, that Shaker women exercised authority in their communities.