Definitive study provides detailed coverage of origins, ideology, industry and art, mode of worship, internal organization of communities. Author's reliance on

When she died in America at age forty-eight, having brought her faithful to a new land on the eve of the Revolution, she left behind a religious movement that w

Insightful analysis, previously unavailable material, 116 illustrations. Emphasizes traditional Shaker crafts and industries.

“Shakerism teaches God’s immanence through the common life shared in Christ’s mystical body.” Like many religious seekers throughout the ages, they hono