quiet-the-power-of-introverts-in-a-world-that-cant-stop-talking-susan-cain

tongued Chautauqua speaker turned Dale
Carnegie’s world upside down, religious revivals
were taking place under huge tents
all over the country. Chautauqua itself was
inspired by these “Great Awakenings,” the
first in the 1730s and 1740s, and the
second in the early decades of the nineteenth
century. The Christianity on offer in
the Awakenings was new and theatrical; its
leaders were sales-oriented, focused on
packing followers under their great tents.
Ministers’ reputations depended on how exuberant
they were in speech and gesture.
The star system dominated Christianity
long before the concept of movie stars even
existed. The dominant evangelist of the
First Great Awakening was a British showman
named George Whitefield who drew
standing-room-only crowds with his dramatic
impersonations of biblical figures and
unabashed weeping, shouting, and crying
out. But where the First Great Awakening
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