The Beechers: America's Most Influential Family

by Obbie Tyler Todd, Mark A. Noll (foreword)

Genres: Biography

368 pages, Hardcover

Published November 27, 2024

Reviews

[Jeremy Canipe · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's an absolutely phenomenonal book. Obbie Tyler Todd provides a deeply researched and very well written study of the familiar Beecher family from the Second Great Awakening through the early 20th century. We see their close yet strained personal relationships, all following from the children of Lyman Beecher from his three wives (as he was twice widowed). We also follow these brilliant public lives joined yet contested as pastors, theologians, novelists, college presidents, and, aways, social reformers. Lastly, we see their tragic devolution from Puritan orthodoxy modified by the New Light movement, through abolitionism, the Civil War, women's rights, and into apostacy in some cases through the rejection of core Christian doctrines, dabbling in spiritualism, and eventually succumbing to the crisis of faith so common among educated Americans in the Victorian Era in response to Darwinism and German higher criticism. Tragically, we might wonder if any of the members of this illustrious American family from the heart of American Puritanism were Christians at all by the end of this history. We learn so much from this granular study of this multifaceted American family.

[David Blankenship · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting history of a family and the religious and social and moral changes that carried them through the 19th century. The final 2/3 of the book was fascinating, as the fruits of Lyman Beecher's influence upon his kids led many of them to distance themselves (even unknowingly) from their father's generally orthodox faith; the only real consistency was that each of them had a high view of themselves and thought themselves entitled to speak on almost any and every moral question, no matter how ridiculous such things might seem today.

I'm glad I stuck with it, because the introduction and the first chapter or so were a bit rough. Two main quibbles: 1)like many writers of history, the author felt compelled to publicly question and often belittle others who have considered the same source material. So you disagreed...fine. 2)A little more information on the background of the patriarch Lyman Beecher would have been nice; though he was born in 1775, almost nothing is said of much of his youth or young adult life. If his influence on his children was vital, then what influenced him? Little to nothing is said about this.

[Nate Pickowicz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Impeccably researched and expertly written. Obbie Todd offers a noteworthy contribution to scholarship, as well as a much-needed corrective to the popular revisionism of the Beechers which has transpired over the last several decades. Grateful for this work.

[Becky Hintz · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first 50 pages or so would have benefited from more aggressive editing to streamline the various threads and make the big ideas more understandable. After that, it became very readable. Really a fascinating family.

[Kelsey Grissom · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m working on a review of this book for a historical journal. I’ll share here when it’s finished.