Filled with fresh discoveries and attuned to the experiences of a fascinating cast of characters, Darkness Falls on the Land of Light offers a compelling narrative of religious revival and social discord in early New England. Beautifully written, cogently argued, and astonishingly researched, this is the most riveting book on America's eighteenth-century revivals to appear in decades.—Mark Valeri, Washington University in St. Louis



For those who thought that little more could be done with colonial New England religious life, here comes Doug Winiarski to prove them, oh, so wrong. With a nose for manuscripts like no other, he has scoured the repositories, churches, and historical societies of the region for sources that delight and amaze, offering us new voices, the voices of the awakened. The results of his searches, presented with sensitivity and expert analysis, give us a truly innovative and fresh view of the transition, not so much from puritan to Yankee, but from puritanism to evangelicalism.—Kenneth P. Minkema, Jonathan Edwards Center, Yale University



A richly textured account of the daily rhythms of religious life in colonial New England over a century of awakening and tumult. Winiarski's account of Congregational hegemony and collapse in the fabled New England town is a masterful synthesis by a scholar especially attentive to the cadences of pietistic language and ritual.—Susan Juster, University of Michigan