The Authoritative Life of General William Booth, Founder of the Salvation Army

Railton, George S. (George Scott), 1849-1913Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0
Word count
688K words
Chapters
69

Tags

English Originals General BiographyReligion Organization FoundingLeadershipLegendary LivesHumanistic CarePath of FaithInspirationWestern ThoughtMoral CultivationReligious LeaderSalvation Army

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Authoritative Life of General William Booth, Founder of the Salvation ArmyAuthor: Railton, George S. (George Scott), 1849-1913,Language: English, Class: BX: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Christianity: Churches, Church movements, Release Date: Nov 4, 2004

Editor's review

This book is George S. Railton's biography of William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army. Railton followed Booth for many years, so the narrative carries a first-hand perspective and the warmth of an insider. The book centres on Booth's life, showing how his religious convictions were translated into social relief work and how the Salvation Army grew from a small beginning into an expanding organisation. For Chinese readers its value lies not only in its subject but in offering a window onto nineteenth-century British religion and relief movements among the poor. The style is documentary and celebratory, with assertion outweighing analysis; readers should approach it with a critical eye for historical sources. It is suitable as supplementary reading for church history, the history of charitable organisations and Victorian social history, and for general readers interested in the Salvation Army's origins. As the original is an English public-domain book, a basic command of English is needed.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the table of contents and introduction first to clarify the stages of Booth's life and the Salvation Army's development, then proceed to the main text.
  2. Mark celebratory judgments as you read and cross-check them against public historical sources to form your own view.
  3. Read alongside works on nineteenth-century British social history or charitable organisations to fill in the background.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
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FAQ

Is this book Booth's autobiography? No. It was written by George S. Railton, who followed Booth for many years; it is a biography from a first-hand perspective, not Booth's own account. The narrative therefore carries the author's standpoint, and should be read alongside other historical sources.
Can I read this book without knowing the religious background? You can, but understanding will be limited. The book deals with the Salvation Army's organisation, religious convictions and social relief work; if you know nothing of nineteenth-century British religious background, consult basic material on the Salvation Army and Booth before starting the main text.
Is this book suitable for academic citation? It can be used as a primary or near-primary source, but because the author's standpoint is pronounced and the tone celebratory, it should not be the sole basis. In academic writing it is best used alongside other independent historical sources, with its first-hand limitations noted.

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About the author

Railton, George S. (George Scott), 1849-1913 Author · British · 1849–1913

George S. Railton (1849–1913) was a British early leader of the Salvation Army, long responsible for its international expansion. Public information about him is limited. His most representative work is The Authoritative Life of General William Booth, Founder of the Salvation Army, a biography of the Salvation Army's founder. The book is clearly written from an insider's perspective: the author was close to his subject and familiar with the organization's operations and early development, so the narrative emphasizes factual detail and internal personnel matters, in a solemn tone that is both testimony and commemoration. Biographies written by core members of a movement such as this have long been regarded as important primary sources for the study of the Salvation Army's origins and early international spread, and are of value both as historical material and as reading.