Butler argues that there was a remarkable social and economic transformation in the American colonies between 1680 and 1770: (1) they became ethnically and nationally diverse, (2) they developed national and international economies, (3) they displayed religious pluralism, (4) exhibited a modern penchant for power over both humanity and nature that brooked few limitations or questions about their propriety, and in government, (5) they looked ahead to large-scale participatory politics. He details the many ways in which the established Anglican and Congregational orthodoxies were overrun by the new insistence on toleration and the expansion of religious sects. His treatment of the destruction of African religious systems, although brief, is exceptional. This book provides the best short summary of the religious development of the colonies I have encountered. ( )