Description
Book SynopsisFirst printed in the United States during the American Revolution, the Bible underwent many revisions, translations, and changes in format as different editors and publishers appropriated it to meet a wide range of changing ideological and economic demands.
Trade Review"A fascinating look into a neglected area of U.S. cultural history." --
Library Journal"
An American Bible is a major achievement. . . . It is also an engrossing and readable book . . . rich in detail and color." --
Christianity and Literature"A very readable treatment of an important chapter in American cultural and religious history.—
Christian Science Monitor"
An American Bible is an extremely compelling piece of cultural history that succeeds in making rich rather than schematic sense of the major dramas that lay behind the production of over 1,700 different American editions of the Bible in the century after the American Revolution. Gutjahr's book is especially powerful in demonstrating how nineteenth-century efforts to purge the Bible of textual and translational impurities in search of an 'authentic' text led ironically to the emergence of entirely new gospels like the
Book of Mormon and the massive fictionalized literature dealing with the life of Christ." -- Jay Fliegelman * Stanford University *
"Seldom does one encounter such a fascinating book as this one. Well researched and clearly and engagingly written, it breaks new ground concerning the production of Bibles and the interaction of the Bible with social and cultural currents of the time. . . . This excellent book has certainly demonstrated why the Bible moved away from being "the center of American print culture."" --
Libraries & Culture"This pathbreaking study of the production of Bibles in the early history of the United States is a splendid effort in every way." -- Mark A. Noll * Wheaton College *
"A fascinating journey through the history of the Bible in America, unprecedented in its scope, erudition, and imagination." -- Jon Butler * Yale University *
"Gutjahr not only presents a fascinating and comprehensive picture of the Good Book's history, but brilliantly illumines the explosive world of 19th-century printing and marketing." --
New England Quarterly“Attacking a topic of this magnitude deserves kudos, and Gutjahr’s work provides a solid outline for future scholars to work from, as well as some fascinating analyses.”—
American Studies International"This meticulously crafted volume is one of those wonderful scholarly volumes that raises questions as well as addresses them. . . . The extensive notes together with the narrative provide a
status quaestionis for the issue of the bible in American culture. As one of the first scholarly studies of this phenomenon, it will long be a standard beginning point for the discussion of the demise of the Bible in American culture; and, therefore a standard work for the continuation of the project of understanding of the intersection of religion and culture in the American experience." --
Stone-Campbell JournalTable of ContentsFigures; Preface; 1. Production; 2. Packaging; 3. Purity; 4. Pedagogy; 5. Popularity; Postscript; Appendixes; Notes; Bibliography; Index.
