Description
Book SynopsisSince its composition in Washington''s Willard Hotel in 1861, Julia Ward Howe''s Battle Hymn of the Republic has been used to make America and its wars sacred. Few Americans reflect on its violent and redemptive imagery, drawn freely from prophetic passages of the Old and New Testaments, and fewer still think about the implications of that apocalyptic language for how Americans interpret who they are and what they owe the world.
In A Fiery Gospel, Richard M. Gamble describes how this camp-meeting tune, paired with Howe''s evocative lyrics, became one of the most effective instruments of religious nationalism. He takes the reader back to the song''s origins during the Civil War, and reveals how those political and military circumstances launched the song''s incredible career in American public life. Gamble deftly considers the idea behind the songhumming the tune, reading the music for usall while reveling in the multiplicity of meanings of and uses to which Howe''s lyr
Trade Review
Lively.... Readers with an interest in 19th-century American religious and political popular culture will enjoy this biography of a hymn.
* Publishers Weekly *
An accessible, engaging, and above all informative volume.
* The Collegian *
In this engagingly written and thoroughly researched book, Richard M. Gamble traces the history of Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic" from its conception at the outset of the Civil War though the beginning of the 21st century.
* Civil War Book Review *
"This book is extremely detailed and very well-written, and the material is interesting on many levels. It will be a valuable resource to historians, church scholars, musicians, and anyone who has ever sung 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic'.
* Anglican & Episcopal History *
Gamble sets out an animated and detailed history of the writing of the hymn in 1861, its appropriation in 1898 as an anthem for imperialism, and its bizarre array of applications during the twentieth century.
* The Journal of American History *
Table of ContentsThe Battle Hymn of the Republic
Prologue
1. The Besieged City
2. A Rich Crimson
3. "The Glorious Freedom of His Gospel"
4. Righteous War and Holy Peace
5. The Anglo-American "Battle Hymn"
6. The Valor of Righteousness
7. The Sacred Inheritance of Mankind
8. Exotic Medley
9. A Severed Nation
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
