Illusions of Innocence: Protestant Primitivism in America, 1630-1875

Implicit in the rhetoric of American millennialism is the fundamental theme of recovery or restoration. Hughes and Allen show how the restoration perspective has worked in two important ways in American life: enshrining "first times" as a kind of transcendent norm that stands in judgment on the ambiguities of the present; and fully identifying a denomination or even the nation itself with the purity of "first times." Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.