"Designed to encourage critical thinking about history, the [book] introduces students to both primary sources and analytical essays on important topics in U.S. history. [The book] presents a ... selected group of readings in a format that asks students to evaluate primary sources, test the interpretations of distinguished historians and others, and draw their own conclusions"--P. [4] of cover.
Americans as a religious people experience both tension and indecision as they wrestle with a variety of critical issues every day. American society continually struggles with its religious past. The primary and secondary materials included in this volume track religious America's efforts to articulate its identity and destiny and implement its religious creeds and ideals in an ever-changing society.
Discusses the Cold War, communism, Eisenhower, the civil rights movement, African-Americans and religion, Mormons, Vietnam, Catholics, feminism, cults, creationism and evolution, American Islam, home schooling, abortion, homosexuality and religion, and the Christian Right.
This classic work, winner of the 1973 National Book Award in Philosophy and Religion and Christian Century's choice as the Religious Book of the Decade (1979), is now issued with a new chapter by noted religious historian David Hall, who carries the story of American religious history forward to the present day. Praise for the earlier edition: ?An unusual and praiseworthy book. . . . It takes a modern, almost anthropological view of history, in which worship is a part of a web of culture along with play, love, dress, and language.”?B.A. Weisberger, Washington Post Book World ?The most detailed, most polished of the works in its tradition.”?Martin E. Marty, New York Times Book Review ?An intellectual delight that one does not so much read as savor.”?America ?The definitive one-volume study by the leading authority.”?Christianity Today ?No one writing or thinking hereafter about America's past will be able to ignore Ahlstrom's magisterial account of the religious element.”?American Historical Review
Designed to encourage critical thinking about history, the MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY series introduces readers to both primary sources and analytical essays on important topics in U.S. history. MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY presents major themes and controversial issues from native American times to the present, drawn from compelling, readable sources that draw readers into the process of developing their own perspectives on American environmental history. This text presents a carefully selected group of readings organized to allow readers to evaluate primary sources, test the interpretations of distinguished historians, and draw their own conclusions. Each chapter includes introductions, source notes, and suggested readings.
This text presents a carefully selected group of readings on medical history and development that allow students to evaluate primary sources, test the interpretations of distinguished historians, and draw their own conclusions.
Identifying the major trends and telling moments within both major denominations and other less formal religious movements, Allitt asks how these religious groups have shaped, and been shaped by, some of the most important and divisive political issues and events of the last half century, including the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, feminism and the sexual revolution, abortion rights, and the antinuclear and environmentalist movements.
"Quite ambitious, tracing religion in the United States from European colonization up to the 21st century.... The writing is strong throughout."--Publishers Weekly (starred review) "One can hardly do better than Religion in American Life.... A good read, especially for the uninitiated. The initiated might also read it for its felicity of narrative and the moments of illumination that fine scholars can inject even into stories we have all heard before. Read it."--Church History This new edition of Religion in American Life, written by three of the country's most eminent historians of religion, offers a superb overview that spans four centuries, illuminating the rich spiritual heritage central to nearly every event in our nation's history. Beginning with the state of religious affairs in both the Old and New Worlds on the eve of colonization and continuing through to the present, the book covers all the major American religious groups, from Protestants, Jews, and Catholics to Muslims, Hindus, Mormons, Buddhists, and New Age believers. Revised and updated, the book includes expanded treatment of religion during the Great Depression, of the religious influences on the civil rights movement, and of utopian groups in the 19th century, and it now covers the role of religion during the 2008 presidential election, observing how completely religion has entered American politics.
The first guide to American religious history from colonial times to the present, this anthology features twenty-two leading scholars speaking on major themes and topics in the development of the diverse religious traditions of the United States. These include the growth and spread of evangelical culture, the mutual influence of religion and politics, the rise of fundamentalism, the role of gender and popular culture, and the problems and possibilities of pluralism. Geared toward general readers, students, researchers, and scholars, The Columbia Guide to Religion in American History provides concise yet broad surveys of specific fields, with an extensive glossary and bibliographies listing relevant books, films, articles, music, and media resources for navigating different streams of religious thought and culture. The collection opens with a thematic exploration of American religious history and culture and follows with twenty topical chapters, each of which illuminates the dominant questions and lines of inquiry that have determined scholarship within that chapter's chosen theme. Contributors also outline areas in need of further, more sophisticated study and identify critical resources for additional research. The glossary, "American Religious History, A–Z," lists crucial people, movements, groups, concepts, and historical events, enhanced by extensive statistical data.
