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A review by andipants
One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America by Kevin M. Kruse
3.0
I was very intrigued with the premise of this book; common wisdom holds that America's sharp Christian turn began mainly in the 1950s as a response to "godless" communism, but Kruse argues (convincingly, I'd say) that this trend was actually an extension and broadening of a movement purposely created in the 1930s by wealthy business interests and admen as a backlash against the New Deal.
I knew a bit going in about the origins of modern American libertarianism, but the explicit and purposeful way these corporate interests coopted religious sentiments was new information to me, and Kruse thoroughly documents the point in the first couple chapters, citing ample evidence of the individuals and organizations involved and their methods. (Though I will say, these were also the driest sections to read; the lists of millionaires and organizations with names comprising various permutations of "faith" and "freedom" got a bit mind-numbing at times.)
The later chapters moved from this creation and into its after-effects, detailing the growth of public religion and religiosity in the Eisenhower years, the infamous school prayer Supreme Court cases of the 60s, and Nixon's overt politicization of religion (to the point where he was holding church services in the White House!). Much of this I knew, at least in broad strokes, but it is certainly worth the periodic reminder that this idea of America as a "Christian nation" is much younger than many conservatives would like to think.
I did wonder at times in the midsection where exactly all this was going, since the fairly simple thesis suggested by the subtitle seemed to have been well proven and left behind after the first couple chapters. The mid-century stuff, especially the school prayer decisions, felt like a bit of a rehash of fairly well-known history to me (but of course, it's also a topic I've read about before, so ymmv). But Kruse does bring it all together in the end; the point he arrives at is rather broader than the subtitle suggests, but no less important:
I knew a bit going in about the origins of modern American libertarianism, but the explicit and purposeful way these corporate interests coopted religious sentiments was new information to me, and Kruse thoroughly documents the point in the first couple chapters, citing ample evidence of the individuals and organizations involved and their methods. (Though I will say, these were also the driest sections to read; the lists of millionaires and organizations with names comprising various permutations of "faith" and "freedom" got a bit mind-numbing at times.)
The later chapters moved from this creation and into its after-effects, detailing the growth of public religion and religiosity in the Eisenhower years, the infamous school prayer Supreme Court cases of the 60s, and Nixon's overt politicization of religion (to the point where he was holding church services in the White House!). Much of this I knew, at least in broad strokes, but it is certainly worth the periodic reminder that this idea of America as a "Christian nation" is much younger than many conservatives would like to think.
I did wonder at times in the midsection where exactly all this was going, since the fairly simple thesis suggested by the subtitle seemed to have been well proven and left behind after the first couple chapters. The mid-century stuff, especially the school prayer decisions, felt like a bit of a rehash of fairly well-known history to me (but of course, it's also a topic I've read about before, so ymmv). But Kruse does bring it all together in the end; the point he arrives at is rather broader than the subtitle suggests, but no less important:
[W]e do violence to our past if we treat certain phrases — "one nation under God," "In God We Trust" — as sacred texts handed down to us from the nation's founding. Instead, we are better served if we understand these utterances for what they are: political slogans that speak not to the origins of our nation but to a specific point in its not-so-distant past.
It's become a cliché at this point to moan about political polarization, but there are roots to the problem and it's something we can certainly work to improve. If we want to do so, I'd say this is a bit of history we'd all do well to remember.