| has gloss | eng: "Burned-over district" was a name popularized by historian Whitney Cross in his 1950 book "The Burned-over District": the social and intellectual history of enthusiastic religion in western New York State, 1800-1850. The term appears to have been coined however, by Charles Grandison Finney who in his 1876 book Autobiography of Charles G. Finney referred to a "burnt district" (p78) to denote an area in central and western New York State during the Second Great Awakening. The name was inspired by the notion that the area had been so heavily evangelized during antebellum revivalism as to have no "fuel" (unconverted population) left over to "burn" (convert). |