Ernest Cassara must certainly be America's leading historian of the Universalist Church. This book, together with his biography of Hosea Ballou (the greatest Universalist preacher), provide a useful overview of this important American religious movement. Universalism is the optimisistic doctrine that God will eventually save all souls, either in this world or the next. Cassara's "documentary history" supplies a sample of how that belief has been developed over the two hundred year history of the Universalist Church. Cassara has compiled selections from the sermons, books, journals and essays of universalists from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. Some of the selections are theological, some of them are political, and some social. They show how a single idea, such as universal salvation, worked itself out in the history of a single American denomination. The book provides an excellent, brief commmentary and historical background for each selection. Some readers will wish for more generous (longer) portions from these preachers and writers who are, alas, almost entirely out of print.(The Universalist Church no longer exists as a seperate denomination.) This book makes a wonderful introduction to an important idea, which made a big difference in American history. Could we have more?