America's Religious History Faith, Politics, and the Shaping of a Nation
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Thomas S. Kidd (PhD, Notre Dame) is distinguished professor of history at Baylor University. He has written many books, including America’s Colonial History and The Great Awakening, and also writes and appears regularly in mainstream media. A past winner of a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship, he tweets at @ThomasSKidd.'America's Religious History offers a comprehensive account of the history we must know in order to understand our present and pave a better way forward. The book is remarkable in its breadth and depth, in its precision and scholarship, and in its sheer readability. Thomas Kidd is a great gift to the contemporary American church, and this book demonstrates why.'
KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR, author of On Reading Well and Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More—Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist
'In this survey, Thomas Kidd provides a rich and complex survey of American Christianity, featuring a wonderful diversity of characters and actors, and he does so for both a general audience and for students. It is particularly strong for including sources on Latino Catholicism and Protestantism, a topic often ignored in textbooks. He incorporates the best of modern scholarship in a language accessible to all.'
PAUL HARVEY, professor and presidential teaching scholar, Department of History, University of Colorado
'Kidd's learned entry into the crowded field of American religious textbooks offers a fresh perspective on a complex story. Ranging from European incursions into an already well-established Native civilization to the clashes that the Trump has engendered, his narrative shows the continual entwining of sacred and secular, calming and violent, dominant and resistant, private and public, and pious and irreligious. General readers will find an account as simple as it is lively, while specialists will find one marked by nuance and insight. And it is all executed with the graceful strokes of a master craftsman.'
GRANT WACKER, Gilbert T. Rowe Professor Emeritus of Christian History, Duke Divinity School, author of One Soul at a Time: The Story of Billy Graham
'Thomas Kidd is an authoritative voice on American religion. Not only is he today's most prolific historian of American religious history, but he is an active commentator on social media who brings his expertise to bear on issues that matter. In this book, he joins his academic expertise with his acute insight into the present-day religious landscape. The result is an outstanding history of American religion that should be of interest to academics, ministers, and anyone else who wishes to understand the deeply significant influence of religion in the United States.'
JAMES P. BYRD, chair of the Graduate Department of Religion, associate professor of American religious history, Vanderbilt University
'Thomas Kidd's brisk narrative of America's religious story brings together a variety of historical strands to create a highly readable, engaging introduction to the many traditions that constitute our contemporary landscape. Kidd's deep knowledge of his subject sharpens his eye for both underexamined but important episodes and significant historical trends. He has created a lively, rich account that will appeal to a wide audience. His excellent suggestions for further reading will satisfy readers wanting to dig more deeply.'
ANNE BLUE WILLS, professor of religious studies, Davidson College
Religion, race, and American history.
America's Religious History is an up-to-date, narrative-based introduction to the unique role of faith in American history. Moving beyond present-day polemics to understand the challenges and nuances of our religious past, leading historian Thomas S. Kidd interweaves religious history and key events from the larger story of American history, including:
- The Great Awakening
- The American Revolution
- Slavery and the Civil War
- Civil rights and church-state controversy
- Immigration, religious diversity, and the culture wars
Useful for both classroom and personal study, America's Religious History provides a balanced, authoritative assessment of how faith has shaped American life and politics.