Definitive study provides detailed coverage of origins, ideology, industry and art, mode of worship, internal organization of communities. Author's reliance on original manuscript material make this study especially useful. 33 illustrations.

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 was to have thousands of followers and become our most important and successful utopian community."--BOOK JACKET.

Highly pictorial presentation of "the history and vision of the United Society of Believers in Christ's second appearing from 1774 to the present."

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

Originally published in 1976 as Anne the Word, this is a popular biography of colorful and controversial Shaker founder Ann Lee.

A comprehensive illustrated anthology of material about and by the American Shakers.

“Shakerism teaches God’s immanence through the common life shared in Christ’s mystical body.” Like many religious seekers throughout the ages, they honor the revelation of God but cannot be bound up in an unchanging set of dogmas or creeds. Freeing themselves from domination by the state religion, Mother Ann Lee and her first followers in mid-18th-century England labored to encounter the godhead directly. They were blessed by spiritual gifts that showed them a way to live the heavenly life on Earth. The result of their efforts was the fashioning of a celibate communal life called the Christlife, wherein a person, after confessing all sin, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, can travel the path of regeneration into ever- increasing holiness. Pacifism, equality of the sexes, and withdrawal from the world are some of the ways the faith was put into practice. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of the Shakers contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 300 cross-referenced entries on Shaker communities, industries, individual families, and important people. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the Shakers.