Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land A History of Church and State in America

Should prayer be allowed in public schools? Should biology be taught according to Darwin or to the book of Genesis? Why is polygamy against the law? These are just a few of the questions that touch our lives directly and emerge out of the separation of church and state. In this volume, one ofthe most distinguished scholars of American religious history traces the complicated relationship of church and state from the early colonial period, through the unique American experiment in religious liberty after the Revolution, to the ongoing debate over religious issues in our schools andcommunities. Edwin Gaustad relates entertaining and edifying accounts of headline-grabbing court trials involving polygamy, witchcraft, and church taxation. He quotes moving passages from the speeches and writings of American Presidents and Supreme Court justices to prove that, to paraphraseMichelangelo, "religious liberty is made up of a series of trifles, but religious liberty is no trifle."

Edwin S. Gaustad is emeritus professor of history at the University of California, Riverside. He is the coauthor, with Philip L. Barlow, of the award-winning The New Historical Atlas of Religion America, which was named an Outstanding Reference Source of the Year by the American Library Association, and the author of numerous books on religious history