The Myth of American Religious Freedom - Brossura

Sehat, David

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0190247215 ISBN 13: 9780190247218

Casa editrice: Oxford University Press, 2015

Riassunto

In the battles over religion and politics in America, both liberals and conservatives often appeal to history. But in The Myth of American Religious Freedom, historian David Sehat provides an eye-opening history of religion in public life that overturns our most cherished myths. Originally, he shows, the First Amendment applied only to the federal government, which had limited authority. On the state level, a Protestant moral establishment ruled over Catholics, Jews, Mormons, agnostics, and others. Not until 1940 did the Supreme Court extend the First Amendment to the states. As the Court began to dismantle the connections between religion and government, religious conservatives mobilized to maintain their power and began the culture wars of the last fifty years. To trace the rise and fall of this Protestant establishment, Sehat focuses on a series of dissenters-abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, progressive pundit Walter Lippmann, and many others. Shattering myths held by both the left and the right, this book forces us to rethink some of our most deeply held political beliefs.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

From the previous edition: "The Myth of American Religious Freedom is a clear, well-argued, carefully researched book that serves as a model of the ways in which excellent and thorough scholarship can also be relevant to contemporary American life.... Wonderful, important, and refreshingly iconoclastic. (Church History)

Sehat has written a wonderful intellectual history of the United States addressing a topic of perpetual concern to Americans since the founding. (American Historical Review)

This is a compelling history and is engagingly told... This excellent book advances an interesting twist on the traditional legal interpretations of the free exercise clause and makes a compelling case for a careful reexamination of our assumptions regarding its history.... More than any other book I have read over the last six months, I find myself continuously referencing this analysis. (Law and Politics Book Review)

This is a smart and sophisticated book. It should be widely, and carefully, read. (Journal of Church and State)

Sobering and persuasive. (The Christian Century)

David Sehat boldly slices through all of American history. (The Journal of American History)

[Sehat] makes his case convincingly...A knowledge of Sehat's argument would elevate the substance of contemporary political debates about the separation of church and state, about religious tests for political office, and about finding common moral ground. (Southern Humanities Review)

A short review cannot do justice to David Sehat's complex book...a detailed history of federal and state policies affecting religion...persuasive. (The Journal of Southern History)

Sehat provides food for thought...he unmasks and attacks the moral establishments across American history. (Kirkus)

New and compelling... timely... an important corrective to the ongoing culture wars between the religious right, which claims this country was birthed on a Christian foundation, and secularists, who insist that the First Amendment spells out a separation of church and state. (Publishers Weekly)

L'autore:

David Sehat is Associate Professor of History at Georgia State University. He is also the author of The Jefferson Rule: How the Founding Fathers Became Infallible and Our Politics Inflexible.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Oxford University Press
• Data di pubblicazione: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0190247215
• ISBN 13: 9780190247218
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 382