One Nation Under God
How Corporate America Invented Christian America
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
From a New York Times-bestselling author, the provocative and authoritative history of the origins of Christian America in the New Deal era
“Fascinating.” —Washington Post
We're often told that the United States is, was, and always has been a Christian nation. But in One Nation Under God, historian Kevin M. Kruse reveals that the belief that America is fundamentally and formally Christian originated in the 1930s.
To fight the "slavery" of FDR's New Deal, businessmen enlisted religious activists in a campaign for "freedom under God" that culminated in the election of their ally Dwight Eisenhower in 1952. The new president revolutionized the role of religion in American politics. He inaugurated new traditions like the National Prayer Breakfast, as Congress added the phrase "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance and made "In God We Trust" the country's first official motto. Church membership soon soared to an all-time high of 69 percent. Americans across the religious and political spectrum agreed that their country was "one nation under God."
One Nation Under God reveals how an unholy alliance of money, religion, and politics created a false origin story that continues to define and divide American politics to this day.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Princeton historian Kruse (White Flight) wonders "why so many contemporary Americans came to believe that has always been and always should be a Christian nation" and finds answers among a group of 1930s anti New Deal industrialists intent on promoting "Christian libertarianism" a philosophy that preached the salvation of the individual through free enterprise. These businessmen, alongside clergy such as Billy Graham, saw an Eisenhower presidency as an opportunity to "inspire the American people to a more spiritual way of life." Yet the Eisenhower Administration produced little more than ceremonial deism. Kruse argues that superficial displays such as adding "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance may have created the religious tradition we see today, but more significant attempts to bridge the gap between church and state were blocked by the Supreme Court. The movement may even have died were it not for Nixon, who cynically evoked nostalgia for 1950s-era stability to win the presidency and helped transform the Silent Majority into the Moral Majority. Kruse sidesteps the question of whether America actually had a religious founding, describing instead how 20th-century politicians exploited this idea, but by doing so, he misses a critical opportunity to separate history from myth and chicanery. B&w photos.
