The Work We Have To Do

First, I have to confess: If there were a Mark Noll fan club, I'd join in a heartbeat. With that confession out of the way, allow me to share about a book I read last night.

Mark Noll's The Work We Have to Do, A History of Protestants in America was fabulous. Noll shows the vast diversity of Protestants in America and briefly looks at three noteworthy figures: William Bradford, Jonathan Edwards, and Phyllis Wheatley. Noll moves on to provide the beginnings of Protestantism in a concise background of the Reformation. He then explores the history of Protestants in America by exploring Protestants in Colonial America, 1607-1789 (ch. 3), Protestants in Charge(ch. 4), 17901-1865, Times of Trial and Renewal, 1866-1918 (ch. 5), Protestants in Modern America (ch. 6) , and he concludes with an epilogue(ch. 7) .

This book is well worth the purchase for the above reasons as well as two others. Noll's chronology and his further reading list following the appendix, a breakdown of Protestant denominations, are phenomenal. The reading list is broken down by topics and the time frames that guide the book.

I bought this book at Half-Price books for $4.98, but it would have been well worth it at list price ($12.95).