In this Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Rhys Isaac describes and analyzes the dramatic confrontations--primarily religious and political--that transformed Virginia in the second half of the eighteenth century. Making use of the observational techniques of the cultural anthropologist, Isaac vividly recreates and painstakingly dissects a society in the turmoil of profound inner change.

Rhys Isaac (1937-2010) was Distinguished Visiting Professor of History at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, and Emeritus Professor of History at LaTrobe University in Australia.