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The Halévy Thesis—A Working Hypothesis? English Revivalism: Antidote for Revolution and Radicalism 1789–1815

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Elissa S. Itzkin
Elissa S. Itzkin
Affiliation:
instructor in history inAdelphi University, Garden City, New York
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Extract

He “saw England with fresh eyes”, and for more than fifty years Elie Halévy's provocative interpretation of the effect of religion on the Victorian out look has continued to engender lively debate and controversy. After his History of the English People in the Nineteenth Century, few historians would contest the practical role of evangelicalism and nonconformity in molding Victorian society. What continues to be challenged is Halévy's claim that the moral influence of the evangelical movement is the parameter within which the social history of nineteenth-century England unfolded.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 44 , Issue 1 , March 1975 , pp. 47 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1975

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