The Beechers

“In a lively and clear narrative, Todd keeps the lives, loves, and projects of moral improvement undertaken by the eleven children of Lyman Beecher interwoven in a chronological history of the Beecher family. A more rounded and intimate picture of Lyman Beecher than we have had, and a great window into the social and religious ferment of the nineteenth century.” ~Joan D. Hedrick, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life

“The Beecher family had it all, and it’s all in Obbie Tyler Todd’s wide-ranging book. Piety. Erudition. Eloquence. Activism. Scandal. The Beechers is a thoughtful and entertaining history. Highly recommended.” ~John G. Turner, author of They Knew They Were Pilgrims: Plymouth Colony and the Contest for American Liberty

“The Beecher family was amazing. Their story offers a window through which to view some of the most influential and often contested outlooks in the era spanning the American Civil War.” ~George M. Marsden, author of Jonathan Edwards: A Life

“This is the best book on Lyman Beecher’s legacies, the nineteenth-century Beecher family, and ‘Beecherism’ on offer.” ~Douglas A. Sweeney, author of Edwards the Exegete: Biblical Interpretation and Anglo-Protestant Culture on the Edge of the Enlightenment

“For the first time in over four decades, we have a biographical account of one of the most consequential families in American history. Obbie Tyler Todd walks us through the lives of the Beecher family from American independence to the turn of the twentieth century, and as he does so, he gives us something of a biography of nineteenth-century America in the nation’s formative years. As Todd lucidly shows, the Beechers were not only instrumental in the formation of American religion; they also had as much impact on American nationality as political families like the Adamses or the Harrisons, and more. Todd’s contribution to the field of American religious history is all the more valuable because he comes to his subject with theological as well as historical sophistication. This work will prove to be one of the most important works written on American religious history in the first half of the twenty-first century.” ~John D. Wilsey, author of American Exceptionalism and Civil Religion: Reassessing the History of an Idea

“In the old days it was said—with only slight exaggeration—that ‘this country is inhabited by saints, sinners, and Beechers.’ Few families in American history have commanded so much attention, influence and power. Obbie Tyler Todd has written the definitive account about this complex, fascinating family. The Beechers will stand as a classic.” ~Debby Applegate, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher