"Stephen J. Stein points out in this vivid overview, the history of alternative religion - from colonial Puritans to late-twentieth-century Branch Davidians - runs parallel to that of dissent in America. Committed to fairness of representation, Stein describes the evolution and structure of alternative religious movements from both sides; the critics and the religious dissenters themselves.

He investigates obscure groups such as the nineteenth-century Vermont Pilgrims, who wore bearskins and refused to bathe or cut their hair, alongside better-known alternative believers, including colonial America's largest outsider faith, the Quakers; seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Mennonites, Amish, and Shakers; and the Christian Scientists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Black Muslims, and Scientologists of today.

The book also covers the milestones in the history of alternative American religions, from the infamous Salem witch trials and mass suicide/murder at Jonestown to the positive ways in which these religions have affected racial relations and the empowerment of women."--BOOK JACKET.