This book is the enthralling biography of the woman writer who helped end the slave trade, changed Britain's upper classes, and taught a nation how to read. The history-changing reforms of Hannah More affected every level of 18th-century British society through her keen intellect, literary achievements,collaborative spirit, strong Christian principles, and colorful personality. A woman without connections or status, More took the world of British letters by storm when she arrived in London from Bristol, becoming a best-selling author and acclaimed playwright and quickly befriending the author Samuel Johnson, the politician Horace Walpole, and the actor David Garrick. Yet she was also a leader in the Evangelical movement, using her cultural position and her pen to support the growth of education for the poor, the reform of morals and manners, and the abolition of Britain's slave trade. Fierce Convictions weaves together world and personal history into the stirring story of a life that intersected with Wesley and Whitefield's Great Awakening, the rise and influence of Evangelicalism, and convulsive effects of the French Revolution. A woman of exceptional intellectual gifts and literary talent, Hannah More was above all a person whose faith compelled her both to engage her culture and to transform it. - Publisher.
Reviews with the most likes.
Book Review: Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More—Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist by Karen Swallow Prior - released today and I have 2 copies to give away on my blog (On Oct 31).
I had never heard of Hannah More before reading this book. She was a contemporary with William Wilberforce and part of the Clapham Sect. Wilberforce was a political mover and had financial resources, but More was a writer, primarily a poet, but also a playwright and pamphlet writer. She did much to move the hearts of the country around slavery. But she was also active in education, against cruelty to animals, for greater morals in society and other reform causes.
This is a good Christian biography. It resists hagiography, but I think is spiritually encouraging.
Christianity Today had an article today about how a number of Evangelicals were unknowingly embracing heresies while not thinking that Christian history is important. Christian history is important in large part because without understanding previous generations and their struggles and theological issues we do not understand our own time and out own struggles and theological issues.
My full review is at my blog at http://bookwi.se/fierce-convictions/
