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jcoker10's review against another edition
4.0
Although the writing is very dry at times, Kruse's thesis is nearly irrefutable. Always enjoy pieces of history that make you re-think common but ultimately false perceptions.
lesserjoke's review against another edition
3.0
An interesting and meticulously-researched book from Princeton historian Kevin M. Kruse, examining the rise of America's religious right over the course of the twentieth century. The basic thesis here is twofold: that only in its relatively recent past has the United States been seen as a fundamentally Christian nation, and that this impression stems largely from a calculated campaign by industry leaders chafing under the New Deal. Kruse documents how, in response to the "Social Gospel" that argued for progressive government policies on biblical grounds of helping the needy, Depression-era corporations began pushing an alternate reading of the New Testament that emphasized individual morality over state intervention and in the process would cut regulations and boost their own profits.
The author traces how this libertarian strain came to dominate public interpretations of Christianity over the following decades, becoming ever more entwined with conservative politics along the way. Under Eisenhower and his successors in the White House, lobbying for issues like the introduction of the Pledge of Allegiance, Supreme Court battles over school prayer, and the addition of the motto "In God We Trust" to the currency helped radically redefine how Americans viewed their country, their religion, and the relationship between the two.
Despite its provocative title, the text is educational and fairly non-controversial in its claims, which seem thoroughly well-sourced. Its internal organization could have been better -- the professor doubles back on his chronology at several points, and his account regularly assumes a base familiarity with American history that could confuse certain readers -- but it's an eye-opening look at a dynamic that most of us take for granted in the partisan landscape of our times.
The author traces how this libertarian strain came to dominate public interpretations of Christianity over the following decades, becoming ever more entwined with conservative politics along the way. Under Eisenhower and his successors in the White House, lobbying for issues like the introduction of the Pledge of Allegiance, Supreme Court battles over school prayer, and the addition of the motto "In God We Trust" to the currency helped radically redefine how Americans viewed their country, their religion, and the relationship between the two.
Despite its provocative title, the text is educational and fairly non-controversial in its claims, which seem thoroughly well-sourced. Its internal organization could have been better -- the professor doubles back on his chronology at several points, and his account regularly assumes a base familiarity with American history that could confuse certain readers -- but it's an eye-opening look at a dynamic that most of us take for granted in the partisan landscape of our times.
sevenlefts's review against another edition
3.0
A friend involved in Humanist circles recommended this to me. It provides interesting insight into how much of the "civic religion" around us -- In God We Trust, One Nation Under God, national prayer breakfasts, etc. -- was purposely crafted by anti-New Deal industrialists as a way to steer the American psyche away from social democratic movements and toward libertarianism/conservatism. According to Kruse, this all started as a way to tamp down the influence of labor unions and to re-cast America as a land of "up by your boot-strap" individualists. And public declarations of faith were a great way to do it.
I was surprised by how the clergy got in board with this (since it would seem to work in their favor) and evangelists like Billy Graham do not come out well in this book. He gives many examples of ministers promoting conservative ideals that appear to go against Christian teaching, but going along since it increased their flocks. It's all kind of gross.
The chapters on supreme court cases and Congressional testimony surrounding some of these changes can be a bit of a slog -- but that's where all the action is. Or rather, where all the mischief is made. An eye-opening look at how public relations, big industry, government and religious institutions conspired to push America in a whole different direction than it was headed in 80 years ago.
I was surprised by how the clergy got in board with this (since it would seem to work in their favor) and evangelists like Billy Graham do not come out well in this book. He gives many examples of ministers promoting conservative ideals that appear to go against Christian teaching, but going along since it increased their flocks. It's all kind of gross.
The chapters on supreme court cases and Congressional testimony surrounding some of these changes can be a bit of a slog -- but that's where all the action is. Or rather, where all the mischief is made. An eye-opening look at how public relations, big industry, government and religious institutions conspired to push America in a whole different direction than it was headed in 80 years ago.
mossybookworm's review against another edition
3.0
enlightening, but I don't think it interrogates whiteness and other factors - though I've got some other books on my list that do so more directly, and this provides some good background. was stunned to learn that just as confederate flags were put up in the 60s, a lot of modern Christian sayings on money, the pledge in schools, etc came along in the 50s
tuckerm's review against another edition
3.0
Important work, very detailed. I would’ve appreciated more of the book being more similar to the epilogue. Not quite as sexy of a read as I expected based on the title. Still good and something that will stick with me.
anitaw16's review against another edition
1.0
It's an important topic but I just could not get past 90 pages of this book. The information is too repetitive. There are only so many ways to say the same thing twice.
kwheeles's review against another edition
2.0
Describes the rise of the anti-progressive influence in Christian America. Makes the case that the view of America as a 'Christian nation' is a post-Depression phenomenon that has strengthened over time (and built an inferred past - history is written by the winners).
It doesn't explicitly address how American Christians seem to have thrown out the good stuff (inclusiveness, brother's keeper, golden rule, etc.) in favor of low taxes ("I've got mine. Screw everyone else."), individualism ("Go get your own."), nativism (not of the European blood and soil type, kinda funny - Europeans like me came here and wiped out the natives that offered up their immune systems as an easy target), and tribalism (some of that Old Testament, God-fearing, damnation on all those unlike us).
It doesn't explicitly address how American Christians seem to have thrown out the good stuff (inclusiveness, brother's keeper, golden rule, etc.) in favor of low taxes ("I've got mine. Screw everyone else."), individualism ("Go get your own."), nativism (not of the European blood and soil type, kinda funny - Europeans like me came here and wiped out the natives that offered up their immune systems as an easy target), and tribalism (some of that Old Testament, God-fearing, damnation on all those unlike us).
stephenmeansme's review against another edition
3.0
This was a thought-provoking book, and I mean that in an intense but neutral way. From the title alone I should have been an easy mark (see my "nf-religion" tag), yet at pretty much every point I found myself puzzled by the narrative.
Kruse sets out to explain "How corporate America invented Christian America" - that is, how the way the American religious right-wing sees itself, the political activities and ideologies they endorse, and so on, originate in whole or in part with corporate interests. At least on the "Corporate America" end he paints a fairly convincing picture. Heads of the big industrial conglomerates of the early 20th c. felt threatened by Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal, and so when they found allies among conservative-leaning preachers and pastors, they added that religious element to their marketing campaigns. Post-WW2, with the election of Eisenhower, public religiosity took off, and the era of "ceremonial deism" was born.
But the question remains: what drove conservative-leaning preachers and pastors so close to corporate interests, and set them against New Deal politics? Kruse focuses on the corporate-political-religious nexus through the 1950s and 1960s (basically Eisenhower through Nixon, with a rapid-fire epilogue to Obama) yet barely touches on the theological sea-changes that polarized American Christianity in the 20th c. When we learn that, in the prayer-in-school debates of the 1960s, the laity of many denominations raised up insurgent firebrands against the more cool-headed elite theologians, it comes as a mild surprise. What happened to cause such a rift, or at least make it exploitable? Barely any attention is paid to the creation/evolution issue, either, whereas in (e.g.) Ronald L. Numbers' THE CREATIONISTS it's argued that textual criticism of the Bible, evolutionary biology, and anti-German xenophobia from WW1 contributed to theological polarization in the early 20th c.
On the corporate side, Kruse's rhetoric at least suggests that much of this was imposed by Madison Avenue types. Yet Billy Graham was pulling in "crusade" audiences in the millions, so how much of a push did the Mad Men need to make? A more fascinating question would be how cultural and religious conservatives seemed to be winning so much, to the point where even Secret Kenyan Marxist (/s) Barack Obama said "God bless you and God bless the United States of America" in so many speeches; and yet they managed to self-radicalize and self-marginalize?
The policy sections were perhaps the most interesting, because it showed how blatantly, bullshittingly ahistorical the arguments were. "Judeo-Christian" values were so self-evidently part of America that they had to be (in the 1950s, for the first time!) codified and demonstrated publicly. Then further public laws and displays of religion were demanded, using the previous ones as historical justification! Accommodationists should feel very uncomfortable...!
Overall, 2.5 stars rounded up. The information that was there was useful, but I always felt like there was something important missing.
Kruse sets out to explain "How corporate America invented Christian America" - that is, how the way the American religious right-wing sees itself, the political activities and ideologies they endorse, and so on, originate in whole or in part with corporate interests. At least on the "Corporate America" end he paints a fairly convincing picture. Heads of the big industrial conglomerates of the early 20th c. felt threatened by Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal, and so when they found allies among conservative-leaning preachers and pastors, they added that religious element to their marketing campaigns. Post-WW2, with the election of Eisenhower, public religiosity took off, and the era of "ceremonial deism" was born.
But the question remains: what drove conservative-leaning preachers and pastors so close to corporate interests, and set them against New Deal politics? Kruse focuses on the corporate-political-religious nexus through the 1950s and 1960s (basically Eisenhower through Nixon, with a rapid-fire epilogue to Obama) yet barely touches on the theological sea-changes that polarized American Christianity in the 20th c. When we learn that, in the prayer-in-school debates of the 1960s, the laity of many denominations raised up insurgent firebrands against the more cool-headed elite theologians, it comes as a mild surprise. What happened to cause such a rift, or at least make it exploitable? Barely any attention is paid to the creation/evolution issue, either, whereas in (e.g.) Ronald L. Numbers' THE CREATIONISTS it's argued that textual criticism of the Bible, evolutionary biology, and anti-German xenophobia from WW1 contributed to theological polarization in the early 20th c.
On the corporate side, Kruse's rhetoric at least suggests that much of this was imposed by Madison Avenue types. Yet Billy Graham was pulling in "crusade" audiences in the millions, so how much of a push did the Mad Men need to make? A more fascinating question would be how cultural and religious conservatives seemed to be winning so much, to the point where even Secret Kenyan Marxist (/s) Barack Obama said "God bless you and God bless the United States of America" in so many speeches; and yet they managed to self-radicalize and self-marginalize?
The policy sections were perhaps the most interesting, because it showed how blatantly, bullshittingly ahistorical the arguments were. "Judeo-Christian" values were so self-evidently part of America that they had to be (in the 1950s, for the first time!) codified and demonstrated publicly. Then further public laws and displays of religion were demanded, using the previous ones as historical justification! Accommodationists should feel very uncomfortable...!
Overall, 2.5 stars rounded up. The information that was there was useful, but I always felt like there was something important missing.