Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review“The market is full of books arguing the definition of ‘who is an evangelical’—questions that this collection refreshingly ignores. For those looking for something beyond that argument and for most historians either connected directly to religion and politics or who see this as a subtheme in their own work, this collection carves out unique space that would be welcome.” —David P. King, author of God’s Internationalists
"This collection of essays encourages readers to look beyond predictable clashes over social issues and examine the ways in which faith has fueled 20th-century U.S. politics." —Notre Dame Magazine
"This book doesn’t solve any problems, but it shows that divisions and culture wars are nothing new in a society where religion and politics often combust. The difference today is a more polarized citizenry." —Catholic News Service
“This collection of essays about religion and politics in the United States in the modern era attempts to pierce through the binary thinking produced by the culture wars. . . . Throughout the volume, the writers work to transcend partisan divides, highlight key figures who were less famous than Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell, and uncover additional tensions in religious and political life by examining places of contingence, irony, and surprise.” —The Christian Century
"The essays in this volume present fresh approaches from some of the bestknown scholars in the field. [T]here is no doubt that the authors of the essays in this volume have made a persuasive case that historians, at the very least, can move beyond the culture wars by paying more attention to the complexity of Americans’ religiously informed thinking." —Fides et Historia
Political historians have been taking religion more seriously of late and this volume shows how powerful and important that attention can be in our present moment. --American Academy of Religion
Ultimately, this work offers a fresh, up-to-date examination of the historical narrative and future direction of studies of religion, culture, and politics while challenging the stale dichotomies of past interpretations. -Choice
Table of ContentsIntroduction
1. Who Should Lead the Christian Workers? Fights for Headship in Church-Labor Solidarity, 1912-1919 by Janine Giordano Drake
2. American Capitalism and Agrarian Spiritual Dissent in the 1930s by Joseph (Kip) Kosek
3. “The Answers were Apocraphyl!”: Protestantism and the Politics of Pluralism in Phylon’s Early Years by Josef Sorett
4. “The Fullness of the Earth is Yours”: Environmental Politics in the Mormon Culture Region by Patrick Mason
5. “A Gauge of Our Faithfulness”: Religion and the Politics of Immigration Reform by Wendy Wall
6. “To Liberate from the Accident of Family Wealth”: How Liberals Revived and Revised the Case for School Vouchers in the 1960s and 1970s by Mark Brilliant
7. An American Crusade: The Religious Liberty of Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union by Andrew Preston
8. God’s Spooks: Religion, the CIA, and Church-State Collaboration by Matthew Avery Sutton
9. Women Radical Religious in an Age of Fracture by Kathleen Sprows Cummings
10. The Occasional Catholics: Faith, Family, and the “Spanish-Speaking” Voter, 1969-1972 by Ben Francis-Fallon
11. The Camden 28: Fratres Sororesque in Pace (Brothers and Sisters in Peace) by Michelle Nickerson
12. In Defense of People, In Defense of the Earth: Environmentalism and the Religious Right in Late-Twentieth-Century American Politics by Keith Mako Woodhouse
13. Looking Up: Latino Megachurches and the Politics of Social Mobility by Kate Bowler
14. Progressive Politics and Religious Faith by James T. Kloppenberg
