Religion and the American Experience: A Social and Cultural History, 1765-1996

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 3 NOV. 1997

Swift weaves a grand narrative that places religion at the center of over 200 years of American experience. The author addresses the considerable diversity of American religion by means of numerous subplots. In these subplots, Swift explores such topics as "Early African American Religion," "Native America Religion," "Women, the Churches, and Empowerment," "Beyond the Mainstream: Immigrants, Nativism, and Cultural Conflict" and "Fundamentalists vs. Modernists." On the one hand, Swift succeeds in offering a clear overview of the historical development of American religion, and his writing is accessible to general audiences. On the other hand, Swift's claim in the introduction that "textbooks at all levels of education do not reflect the growing importance of religion as a means of understanding American culture, politics, and society" is a sweeping claim for which he does not offer evidence; it also raises a problem that his own book does not satisfactorily remedy. Moreover, because the book grew out of lecture notes, it flows awkwardly and too often scants its treatment of the past in favor of the present. In the end, Swift's book offers little to distinguish it from equally accessible accounts that synthesize the same body of material.