Johnson and the Action of the Middle Class Johnson's book A Shopkeeper's Millennium focuses on the small town of Rochester and the events that occurred in the 1990s 20s and 30s of the nineteenth century. Johnson examines various scenarios that played a specific role in the Second Religious Revival, but Johnson connects all of these scenarios to an underlying reason for the explosive resurgence of Christianity in the United States. Johnson, in A Shopkeeper's Millennium, claims that the singular cause of this renaissance was due to actions taken by the middle class to conform more closely to an industrial society. Johnson states that the middle class was responsible for three key actions that were the cause of the religious revival: the movement toward individualism in business by the middle class, the creation of a free labor society in Rochester, and subsequent actions taken by the middle class. middle class to regain power and influence. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In A Shopkeeper's Millennium, Johnson argues that the middle class' move away from family-centered business and pursue individualism was a major factor in creating the events that led to the religious revival. Johnson expands on this topic in chapter two, where he argues that the abandonment of a family-centered business model liberated the working class by removing the constant supervision that workplace bosses exercised on employees on a daily basis (Johnson, 1978, p.38 ). With this explanation from Johnson, we see that the owners no longer have direct control and moral influence over the increasingly transient working class. Johnson continues throughout the first section of chapter two to show the social divide between the more orderly middle and upper classes and the turbulent working class (Johnson, 1978, p.38-42). This moral divide is perceived as a religious problem and therefore can only be resolved by reintegrating religion and good morals into the basic foundations of society. In a sense, A Shopkeeper's Millennium highlights that the religious revival was a movement that brought about common ground between social classes. Johnson's analysis of Rochester also highlights a second action taken by the middle class: the continued push for wage labor and a free labor society, which allowed employers to hire and fire employees for very specific tasks. Freelance companies allow employees to not need much experience to hold a job. The problem with Rochester, as Johnson points out, was that the establishment of a free labor society by the middle class only served to widen the social gap between the middle classes and the lower classes, which is especially evident in the issue of alcohol which Johnson discusses throughout the book. For this example, we need to look to chapter two of A Shopkeeper's Millennium, where Johnson explains that the push for a free labor economy plunged the working class into alcoholism and violence. Johnson shows that in a domestic economy, drinking was condoned as a social activity regulated and approved by the owner of the workplace. However, Johnson points out that the push for a free labor market has taken away owners' power to control alcohol use. Johnson goes on to state that due to this loss of control, there was a strong reaction from the middle class which led to the removal of alcohol from the workplace. Johnson goes on to demonstrate that the free labor economy limited the power of owners to only the workplace, and therefore..