Religion in American Life A Short History

This new edition ofReligion 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. 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. The volume remarks on the generational divide among evangelicals that manifested itself during the 2008 election and notes how completely the discourse of religion has entered American politics. (When George Romney ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968, his Mormon faith elicited nary a comment. When Romney's son Mitt ran in 2008, his Mormon faith arguably cost him the nomination.) Finally, the book touches on the Ground Zero mosque controversy and uses it as an occasion to underscore the religious pluralism that was characteristic of lower Manhattan in the seventeenth century.

Jon Butler is Howard R. Lamar Professor of American Studies, History, and Religious Studies at Yale University. He is the author of Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the American People, among other books. Grant Wacker is Professor of Christian History at Duke Divinity School. His books include Heaven Below: Early Pentecostals and American Culture. Randall Balmer is Professor of American Religious History at Barnard College, Columbia University. He is the author of a dozen books, including Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America.