This Chosen Pleasant Hill: Shakers of the Kentucky Bluegrass

By Carol Medlicott and Christian Goodwillie

The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, commonly called “Shakers,” created a thriving community in the Kentucky Bluegrass beginning soon after 1805. Located near the high palisades over the Kentucky River in Mercer County, Pleasant Hill prospered for over a century, an example of religious devotion made manifest in a setting of architectural and agricultural beauty. Shaker life at Pleasant Hill had many facets, both spiritual and temporal. This meticulously researched and richly illustrated volume presents a fresh exploration of many aspects of life at Pleasant Hill, ranging from the site’s natural setting and its historical and spiritual underpinnings, to the community’s complex ethnic, racial, and gender dynamics, and its plentiful domestic economy.

Carol Medlicott is a historical geographer in the Department of History at Northern Kentucky University. Her work considers various aspects of the western Shaker experience and of early Shaker expansion, including settlement patterns, leadership, cultural interaction, cartography, and music. Her major books addressing the Shaker west are Issachar A Shaker’s Journey (University Press of New England, 2013) and Richard McNemar and the Music of the Shaker West (co-authored with Christian Goodwillie, Kent State University Press, 2013). Christian Goodwillie is director and curator of special collections and archives in the Burke Library at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. He has served as the president of the Communal Studies Association and was honored with their Distinguished Scholar Award in 2021. Goodwillie has authored, co-authored, or edited, twelve books on the Shakers and Freemasonry, as well as publishing numerous articles.

Both are good friends of Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village and have presented lectures with us.

Publisher: ‎ Straggling Trembler Press (January 1, 2022)
Perfect Paperback: ‎ 291 pages
ISBN-13: ‎ 979-8987033401