Michael J. Altman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama. His research interests include American religious history, Asian religions in America, colonialism, and critical theory.

Altman successfully disrupts and expands the typical narrative about Hinduism in America by carefully documenting encounters with South Asian religious practices, objects, and texts. He also precisely details how notions of America as a white Protestant democracy and chosen nation were formed against representations of India as dark, uncivilized, and despotic. Altman's book is well-researched, well-organized, and well-written. His argument showing how Americans constructed their identity and religion through differences and similarities with an imagined Other is compelling and insightful. He makes a valuable contribution to academic discourse and public conversation about Hinduism in the American religious landscape.

• AcknowledgementsPrefacePrologueChapter 1: Heathens and Hindoos in Early AmericaChapter 2: Missionaries, Unitarians, and Raja Rammohun RoyChapter 3: Hindoo Religion in American National CultureChapter 4: Transcendentalism, Brahmanism, and Universal ReligionChapter 5: The Theosophical Quest for Occult PowerChapter 6: Putting the "Religion" in the World's Parliament of ReligionEpilogue:

Michael J. Altman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama. His research interests include American religious history, Asian religions in America, colonialism, and critical theory.

Altman successfully disrupts and expands the typical narrative about Hinduism in America by carefully documenting encounters with South Asian religious practices, objects, and texts. He also precisely details how notions of America as a white Protestant democracy and chosen nation were formed against representations of India as dark, uncivilized, and despotic. Altman's book is well-researched, well-organized, and well-written. His argument showing how Americans constructed their identity and religion through differences and similarities with an imagined Other is compelling and insightful. He makes a valuable contribution to academic discourse and public conversation about Hinduism in the American religious landscape.

• AcknowledgementsPrefacePrologueChapter 1: Heathens and Hindoos in Early AmericaChapter 2: Missionaries, Unitarians, and Raja Rammohun RoyChapter 3: Hindoo Religion in American National CultureChapter 4: Transcendentalism, Brahmanism, and Universal ReligionChapter 5: The Theosophical Quest for Occult PowerChapter 6: Putting the "Religion" in the World's Parliament of ReligionEpilogue:

Michael J. Altman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama. His research interests include American religious history, Asian religions in America, colonialism, and critical theory.

Altman successfully disrupts and expands the typical narrative about Hinduism in America by carefully documenting encounters with South Asian religious practices, objects, and texts. He also precisely details how notions of America as a white Protestant democracy and chosen nation were formed against representations of India as dark, uncivilized, and despotic. Altman's book is well-researched, well-organized, and well-written. His argument showing how Americans constructed their identity and religion through differences and similarities with an imagined Other is compelling and insightful. He makes a valuable contribution to academic discourse and public conversation about Hinduism in the American religious landscape.

• AcknowledgementsPrefacePrologueChapter 1: Heathens and Hindoos in Early AmericaChapter 2: Missionaries, Unitarians, and Raja Rammohun RoyChapter 3: Hindoo Religion in American National CultureChapter 4: Transcendentalism, Brahmanism, and Universal ReligionChapter 5: The Theosophical Quest for Occult PowerChapter 6: Putting the "Religion" in the World's Parliament of ReligionEpilogue: