Religion, Culture and Politics in the Twentieth-Century United States

Mark Hulsether is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and American Studies at the University of Tennessee. He is author of Building a Protestant Left: Christianity and Crisis Magazine, 1941-1993 (University of Tennessee Press, 1999) and numerous articles on aspects of religion, culture and society in 20th-century America.

Wonderful. What I find most impressive is the clear-cut way Hulsether integrates religion, politics, and culture - no small task and a rarity in overviews of American religious history. It is comprehensive but also offers compelling case studies that illustrate the peculiar dynamics of twentieth century America, integrating economics, race relations, popular culture and other critical social forces into the story. This book is quite an achievement and will immediately stand out as a culturally informed, politically astute alternative guide to religion in contemporary America.

• Introduction; Mapping US Religion; Religion in American Studies and Cultural Studies; Strategies for Dealing with Religious Diversity; 1 Religion in North America Before the Twentieth Century; Native Americans Meet Europeans; From Red and White to Red, White, and Black; Key Players in European-American Religion During the Colonial Era; Expanding the Cast of Key Players; 2 Changes in the Religious Landscape in the Early Twentieth Century; New Key Players on the Landscape: Jews and Roman Catholics; Emergent Developments in the Protestant Mainstream; Three Final Groups, Plus Multiple Maps for Multiple Interactions of Our Key Players; 3 Religion and Social Conflict in the Early Twentieth Century; Religion, Wealth, and the Working Class; Religion and the Politics of Gender; Debates about War, Peace, and Foreign Relations; 4 Cultural Aspects of Religion in the Early Twentieth Century; Cultural Dimensions of Immigrant Religious Enclaves; Religion and Popular Culture; Battles for the Soul of Protestantism; 5 Shifts in the Religious Landscape From World War II to the Present; A Changing Map of Dazzling Religious Diversity; Collapse and Restructuring in the Old Protestant Establishment; Trends Among Other Key Players; 6 Religion and Evolving Social Conflicts from World War to the Present; Faces of African-American Religion and Politics; More on the Culture War; Thinking about the End of the World with Conservative Protestants; 7 Cultural Aspects of Religion from World War II to the Present; Creationism and the Emergence of a Postmodern Evangelicalism; Debates about Accepting Gay and Lesbian People; Religion in an Age of Consumerism; Faces of the Buddhist Sangha in America; Race and Religious Tradition in an Era of Cultural Hybridity; Mainstream Culture Warriors Respond to Rising Pluralism; Conclusion: Consensus, Pluralism, and Hegemony in US Religion; Index.