Paul E. Johnson's a Shopkeeper's Millennium, The Middle Class's Action

Johnson and the Actions of the Middle Class

Johnson’s book A Shopkeeper’s Millennium is centered on the small city of Rochester and the events that occurred in the 1820’s and 30’s. Johnson examines various scenarios that played a specific role in the second religious revival, but Johnson links all of these scenarios to one underlying reason for the explosive recovery of Christianity in the United States. Johnson, in A Shopkeeper’s Millennium, cites that the singular cause for such a revival was because of the actions taken by the middle class in order to conform more to an industrialist society. Johnson states that the middle class was responsible for three especially key actions that were the cause of the religious revival: The move towards individualism in business by the middle class, the establishment of a free labor society in Rochester, and the subsequent actions taken by the middle class to regain power and influence.

In A Shopkeeper’s Millennium, Johnson claims that the move by the middle class to abandon family centered business and pursue individualism was a large factor in creating the events that led up to the religious revival. Johnson goes into detail about this in Chapter two, where he states that the abandonment of a family-centered model of business liberated the working class by removing the constant supervision that the masters of the workplace exerted on the employees on a daily basis (Johnson, 1978, p. 38). With this explanation from Johnson, we see that the proprietors no longer have direct control and moral influence over the increasingly transient working class. Johnson continues throughout the first section of chapter two to show that a social divide between the more orderly middle and upper classes and the rowdy working class (Johnson, 1978, p.38-42). This moral split is perceived as a religious problem, and therefore can only be solved by reinstating religion and good morals to the core foundations of society. In a way, A Shopkeeper’s Millennium outlines that the religious revival was a movement that allowed for common ground to once again be had between the social classes.

Johnson’s analysis of Rochester also points out a second action that was taken by the middle class: the continued push for wage labor and a free labor society, which allowed for employers to hire and fire employees for very specific tasks. Free labor societies allow employees to not need much experience to retain a job. The problem with Rochester, as Johnson points out, was that this establishment of a free labor society by the middle class only served to further the social divide between the middle classes and the lower classes, which is especially prominent in the issue over alcohol that Johnson discusses throughout the book. For this instance, we must look towards chapter two of A Shopkeeper’s Millennium where Johnson explains that the push for a free labor economy plunged the working class into alcoholism and violence. Johnson shows that in a household economy, drinking was condoned as a social activity that was regulated and approved by the master of the workplace. However, Johnson points out that the push for a free labor market removed the power from the proprietors to control the use of alcohol. Johnson goes on to state that because of this loss of control, there was heavy push back from the middle class that resulted in the removal of alcohol from the work place. Johnson continues by showing that the free labor economy limited the power of proprietors only to the workplace, and thus the neighborhoods and home life of the working class were filled with alcohol (Johnson, 1978, p.55-61). Johnson’s analysis of the situation in Rochester points to the fact that the transition in the market continued to drive fractures into the fragile social scene of this new city. These divides were found to only be bridged through religious means.

Later in A Shopkeeper’s Millennium, Johnson turns the spotlight on another decision by the middle class that helped spur forth a religious revival; this was the decision to take action to try and regain influence on the working class. In chapter four, Johnson details two specific middle class movements that tried and ultimately failed to bring influence back to the working class. The first of these is the temperance reforms, which tried to restrict the use of alcohol of the lower class by resorting to a form of societal pressures. The middle class sought to accomplish temperance by relying on their own moral influence in not drinking alcohol. Johnson recalls that this plot only worked where the middle class actually interacted with the working class. In fact, there was still an ample amount of alcohol in the working class neighborhoods and there were even some violent clashes between the different ideologies over alcohol (Johnson, 1978, p.79-83). The other movement that Johnson discussed was the Sabbatarians, which was comprised of the middle class trying to restore fundamental values and reinstate the Sabbath. Johnson shows us that the movement pushed for the full use of power of the middle class by enacting laws and creating businesses that aligned with the values of the movement. Yet, Johnson shows us that the movement failed by dividing the middle class along the idea of the proper use of power and set a clear opponent up for the middle class (Johnson, 1978, p.83-88). Johnson shows that the middle class was desperate to retain control over an increasingly divided society, but with all other attempts failing, there was only one way to turn: towards God.

Johnson’s argument in A Shopkeeper’s Millennium beautifully depicts the city of Rochester and the strains that were put on society during a very powerful transition. However, Johnson still maintains that it was the fault of the middle class for such a powerful Christian revival. The revival was a good thing in many respects: it dissolved social tensions, it reestablished a common ground between the classes, and it renewed the power of moral values among the city of Rochester and beyond. But Johnson shows that this stability in the new society came on the heels of something much darker: the want for power by the middle class over something that they chose to no longer control.