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In Paul E. Johnson’s “A Shopkeeper’s Millenium,” he tries to make a case for the connections between politics, religion, and the market in relation to the religious revival that occurred in Rochester, New York in the late 1820s to early 1830s. At times, the connection is brought to light, like when he states “The political dividing line was not social class but family jealousies compounded by religion and geographic origins” (65). This quote relates back to his discussion regarding the feud between the Rochesters and the Bucktails in both a political and religious sphere. Yet, statements such as these are actually the only places the connections are made clear. Most of the piece is a dense narrative that mentions a series of people, their origins, their work, who they were associated with, and so on. It is easy to find yourself five pages into a chapter and be completely unaware as to what Johnson is arguing at that moment. Without the occasional sentence declaring a connection between one of the three ideas, it is easy to not see the association at all, which I believe hurts Johnson’s argument in the piece as a whole.
Though Johnson’s piece does suffer from this flaw, it is nice to see my hometown gaining some recognition for once. An interesting piece that I noticed in “A Shopkeeper’s Millennium” that has continued to this day is the business associations amongst relatives. Johnson mentions how most of the first men to settle and cultivate business in Rochester did so through family connections (25). This idea is continued further, as Johnson asserts that businesses were also brought into existence through in-law connections or close personal friendships (27). In today’s Rochester, this same idea has continued. A number of law firms are family run between brothers. Even more so than this, the biggest business to come out of Rochester, Wegmans, is completely family run through relatives and in-laws. For instance, Danny Wegman’s step-son-in-law is head of Wegmans’ liquor department throughout all of its stores. It’s somewhat nice to see how the connections that spurred Rochester’s growth in the early 19th century is the thing that is still keeping the city a profitable place to live.
In response to Ben’s post on Johnson’s choice to use Rochester for this type of study, I completely agree. As Ben describes in his post, “Rochester was also a blend of so much of the rest of the country” (Benjamin Hartshorn, Philadelphia, PA). This statement could not be more accurate to describe Rochester during the early 19th century. Being an inland city, it featured many of the characteristics that city would that was distant from the ocean, like focusing on agriculture. Yet, by having the Erie Canal, it connected Rochesterians to major cities like New York through the Hudson River, and the rest of the country and world from there. This city also featured a visible diversity in the classes of people that resided within the city’s bounds. From the wealthy land owners down to the unskilled laborers, Rochester had it all (still does too). Being a blend of the rest of the United States, Rochester was a great choice by Johnson to study regarding the effects of the Second Great Awakening. Though, as I said before, his study features some flaws because of the lack of clear connections between his central ideas.