Religion in American Politics
A Short History
Frank Lambert
To read the entire book description or the introduction, please visit: http://press.princeton.edu/
The delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention blocked the establishment of Christianity as a national religion. But they could not keep religion out of American politics. From the election of 1800, when Federalist clergymen charged that deist Thomas Jefferson was unfit to lead a "Christian nation," to today, when some Democrats want to embrace the so-called Religious Left in order to compete with the Republicans and the Religious Right, religion has always been part of American politics. InReligion in American Politics, Frank Lambert tells the fascinating story of the uneasy relations between religion and politics from the founding to the twenty-first century.
"Of the writing of books about the rise and rumored fall of the religious right there is no end. But most of these tend toward the genre of the rant, which is why Lambert's new book is important. It gives a history of the intertwining of evangelical faith and political engagement in America that displays no obvious agenda other than to illuminate…. The whole book will be useful as a handy, clear and fair treatment of this most contentious subject."–Publishers Weekly
Paper | $18.95 / £12.95 | ISBN: 978-0-691-14613-3
Cloth | $24.95 / £16.95 | ISBN: 978-0-691-12833-7
e-Book | $18.95 | ISBN: 978-1-4008-2458-8