His 1992 book The Shaker Experience in America won the Philip Schaff prize from the American Society of Church History and has been seen as a definitive work on the topic.
[2] Stein began his career teaching at Lutheran High School North in St. Louise, where he realized he did not want to become a pastor.
"[4] Stein also published various works on religion including Letters from a Young Shaker: William S. Byrd at Pleasant Hill (1985); The Shaker Experience in America: A History of the United Society of Believers (1992); Alternative American Religious (2000); and Communities of Dissent: A History of Alternative Religions in America (2003); and was editor of Apocalypticism in the Modern Period and the Contemporary Age, volume 3 in The Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism (1998).
First, it reminds us that historical research and writing can be performed at a very high level of skill and thoroughness, something we may have forgotten if the history we read is limited to small religious movements.
Third, it brings their story up to the present day, with an enlightening synopsis of the closure of most Shaker colonies and the precarious survival of the Canterbury and Sabbathday Lake communities.
[3] He served as co-editor along with Catherine L. Albanese of the "Religion in North America" series put out by Indiana University Press.
[17][3] He also served on the National Advisory Board of The Joseph Smith Papers along with other scholars such as Terryl L. Givens, Harry S. Stout, Richard Lyman Bushman, and Dean C.