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Ian Tyrrell, Reforming the World: The Creation of America's Moral Empire. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2010. Pp. vii + 245. $35.00.
This is a story about the "emergence of the United States as a world power" between 1880 and 1920 that sets out to "broaden the context of the drive toward American imperialism" by narrowing in on the influence of missionary and reform activism (2). By featuring religion so prominently in the story of empire-building, Tyrrell challenges traditional interpretations that have explored political, military, and economic factors while treating religion as a mere subset. As evidence for this central role of religion in shaping the course of history, Tyrrell writes about a generation of devoted young people coming of age in the 1 880s who believed that the United States could help create "a kind of Christian moral empire that rose above [national boundaries]" (4). Organized in such groups as the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), the Young Men's (and Women's) Christian Association (YMCA, YWCA), the Young People's Society for Christian Endeavot, and dozens of lesser-known groups, these activists traveled broadly and interacted with other missionary evangelists in Europe and in colonial nations. Eventually, the missionaries interested in soul-saving and die reformers interested in social betterment joined forces and became what Tyrrell...