Gearing up to deliver the William and Mary Quarterly Prize Lecture twenty years to the month after I published my first journal article, “Pale Blewish Lights and a Dead Man’s Groan” (1998). I’m thrilled to be presenting this lecture honoring legendary Quarterly editor, Mike McGiffert.

The talk will bridge the argument in Darkness Falls on the Land of Light and my recent work on frontier Shakerism. I’m looking forward to sharing stories of murder, spouse swapping, genderlessness, celibacy, the jerks, and other New Light family values. Here’s the promotional blurb:

In this illustrated lecture, historian Douglas Winiarski examines the varied ways in which the “people called New Lights”—progenitors of today’s evangelical Protestants—resolved perplexing mind-body problems associated with their transformative conversion experiences. Drawing upon a wide range of examples from maritime Canada to the Carolinas and from New England to the trans-Appalachian frontier, Professor Winiarski will explore how the religious revivals of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries fueled controversies over marriage, the family, sexuality, and the body.

 “Death by Pancakes” will take place on Monday, October 22, 2018, at 4:00 in Blow Hall, room 201, on the campus of the College of William & Mary. Hope to see you there!