Volume Two

A History of Religion in America

From the End of the Civil War to the Twenty-First Century

A History of Religion in America: From the End of the Civil War to the Twenty-First Century provides comprehensive coverage of the history of religion in America from the end of the American Civil War to religion in post 9/11 America. The volume explores major religious groups in the United States and examines the following topics:

  • The aftermath of the American Civil War
  • Immigration’s impact on American religion
  • The rise of the social gospel
  • The fundamentalist response
  • Religion in Cold War America
  • The 60’s counterculture and the backlash
  • Religion in Post-9/11 America

Chronologically arranged and integrating various religious developments into a coherent historical narrative, this book also contains useful chapter summaries and review questions. Designed for undergraduate religious studies and history students A History of Religion in America provides a substantive and comprehensive introduction to the complexity of religion in American history.

Book Information Complimentary Exam Copy

Book Cover

Audio Chapter Introductions

Download Volume 2   Transcript  

Intro to Volume 2

Intro to Volume 2 -Chapter 1

Intro to Volume 2 -Chapter 2

Intro to Volume 2 - Chapter 3

Intro to Volume 2 - Chapter 4

Intro to Volume 2 - Chapter 5

Intro to Volume 2 - Chapter 6

Intro to Volume 2 - Chapter 7

Intro to Volume 2 - Chapter 8

Volume 2 Concluding Remarks

Supplementary Downloads

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Recommended Videos to Accompany A History of Religion in America: From the End of the Civil War to the Twenty-First Century

The following video recommendations are intended to enhance readers’ knowledge, and to prompt classroom discussion, of topics covered in each chapter.  All of the videos listed – both feature films and documentaries – are readily available.  Feature films may require access to video distributers (e.g. Netflix, Amazon) and a rental cost.  Nearly all of the documentaries are available on the Internet at no cost.

The videos are arranged by chapter and in most cases with alternatives.  Feature films provide the opportunity to explore how historical events have been interpreted and dramatized on the “silver screen,” where the interpretations appear to vary from the historical record, and why the filmmaker chose to use his or her creative license in making changes.   The documentaries stick closer to the historical record and provide greater depth on various topics than is provided in the text.

Chapter 1: The challenges of immigration, growth, and diversity

Option 1:  The Tragedy of Wounded Knee (The Ghost Dance)   (17:15)

Synopsis: This video, produced in 2011, reviews the connections between the Ghost Dance and the tragedy of Wounded Knee.  It includes archival footage of the Ghost Dance from the time period.

Link to helpful information:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EdRT56WK7Q

Option 2, Part 1:  Introduction to the West-Carlisle Indian School (9:57)

Synopsis: This video, from TNT’s mini-series “Into the West,” is a dramatization of how Native American children were treated in the name of assimilation at the Carlisle Indian School. 

Link to helpful information:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfRHqWCz3Zw

Option 2, Part 2: Stolen Children: Residential Survivors Speak Out (18:35)

Synopsis: This video, produced by CBC Television in 2008), features testimonials of the survivors of the residential Indian schools. It works well as a follow up to the previously recommended video.

Link to helpful information:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdR9HcmiXLA

Chapter 2: Industrialization, urbanization, and the Social Gospel, here and abroad

Option 1, Part 1:  Billy Sunday Preaching in Boston (1:22)

Synopsis:  This brief video, produced in 2012, provides rare archival footage of Billy Sunday preaching in Boston in 1929 on America’s need for “old time religion.”  

Link to helpful information:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOzEx3sY1n8

Option 1, Part 2: Billy Sunday: A Voice of God (10:14)

Synopsis:  This video, produced in 2014, provides a brief overview of the life of Billy Sunday, and as such it goes well with the above footage.

Link to helpful information:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc17cwGY0ho

Both Options should be used in tandem with the supplementary reading provided on the companion website for Chapter 2.

Option 2: The Women of Hull House, Parts 1 and 2 (12:44 & 15:00)

Synopsis:  This video, in two parts, produced in 2015, provides a history of the settlement house, Hull House, and the women who both made it a success and were in residence. 

Links to helpful information:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aFyTcXVAr8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_LSERC74Zo&t=99s

Chapter 3: Science versus religion: action and reaction

Option 1: Evolution and Charles Darwin (1:52:04)

Synopsis: This documentary, produced by NOVA for its Discovery of the History of Science series in 2014, provides an overview of the life and work of Charles Darwin, as well as his theory of evolution.  This video should be used in tandem with supplementary material included in the companion website for Chapter 3.

Link to helpful information:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3QdmgEv7KE

Option 2:  Scientific Racism: The Eugenics of Social Darwinism (58:58)

Synopsis:  This video, produced by the BBC in 2012, examines one application of Darwinian evolution to humankind.  It focuses on developments in Great Britain, where Social Darwinism was first conceived, but that was the primary source for its adoption in the United States.  This video should be used in tandem with supplementary material included in the companion website for Chapter 3.

Link to helpful information:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxjL6GSfIL0&t=1867s

Chapter 4: Religion in America between the World Wars

Option 1:  Inherit the Wind   (2:8:00)

Synopsis: This feature film, produced in 1960, provides a dramatization of the Scopes Trial in 1925.  It provides a useful source for discussion of the confrontation between those who sought to ban the teaching of evolution in the public schools and those who fought to block it.   It should be used in tandem with supplementary material included in the companion website for Chapter 4.

Links to helpful information:

http://www.sparknotes.com/drama/inheritwind/summary/

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-inherit-the-wind-1960

Option 2:  Aimee Semple McPherson (52:17)

Synopsis:  This documentary, produced in 2014 by PBS for its American Experience series, provides an overview of the life and work of revivalist Aimee Semple McPherson. 

Link to helpful information:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjoxMAVN66c

Chapter 5: Religion in post-World War II America, 1945-1960

God in America, Episode 5, Soul of a Nation   (56:07)

Synopsis:  This video, produced by PBS in 2010 for its American Experience and Frontline series, explores the post-World War II era in the United States.  Among other topics, it features the rise of evangelist Billy Graham, the battle against "godless communism," and the early public years of Martin Luther King, JR.  It should be used in tandem with supplementary material included in the companion website for Chapter 5.

Links to helpful information:

http://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/view/

http://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/study-guide/five.html

http://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/transcripts/hour-five.html

Chapter 6:  Religion in an age of turmoil – the 1960s and 1970s

Option 1: Explore: Martin Luther King, Jr.   (N/A)

Synopsis: This collection includes videos and web-exclusive features produced by PBS and its media partners. Each of the features is about King and his legacy on civil rights and equality in the United States.  The collection should be used in tandem with supplementary materials included on the companion website for Chapters 5 and 6.

Link to helpful information:

http://www.pbs.org/black-culture/explore/martin-luther-king-jr/#.WuXUdZdG1PY

Option 2: Latino Americans: Episode 5: Prejudice and Pride: The Farmworkers Strike (16:20)

Synopsis: This documentary, produced by PBS in 2018, covers the lives of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta and their leadership of the United Farmer Workers Strike in the 1960s.   The collection should be used in tandem with supplementary materials included on the companion website for Chapter 6.

Link to helpful information:

http://www.pbs.org/video/latino-americans-farmworkers-strike/

Chapter 7:  An equal and opposite reaction: conservative retrenchment in the 1980s and 1990s.

Option 1:  Rise of the Religious Right, Parts 1 & 2 (14:53 & 14:52)

Synopsis: This documentary, produced in 2015, provides a history of the Religious Right and its involvement in presidential elections beginning with Richard Nixon through the rise of the Moral Majority.  This documentary should be used in tandem with supplementary materials included on the companion website for Chapter 7.

Links to helpful information:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqE6WnIc8Rw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WsREKJCx2s&t=116s

Option 2:  The Late Great Planet Earth    (1:31:04)

Synopsis:  This feature film, The Late Great Planet Earth, produced in 1979, was based on the novel of the same title by Hal Lindsay and Carole Carlson published in 1970.  They were the first of a series of premillennialist novels and movies, based on biblical revelations on the second coming of Jesus Christ, that appeared over the next two decades.

Link to helpful information:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzkvXp4eihU

Chapter 8: Whither religion in the twenty-first century?

Option 1: None of the Above: The Rise of the Religiously Unaffiliated (9:07)

Synopsis: This video was produced in 2013 (originally 2012) by PBS in partnership with the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life as part of its Religion and Ethics Newsweekly.  Through a series of interviews and commentaries it provides an introduction to the theological, social, and political views of religiously unaffiliated Americans, commonly referred to as “the nones.” 

Link to helpful information:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2013/03/15/october-26-2012-none-of-the-above-religious-implications/13588/

Option 2: Richard Dawkins: The God Delusion Speech (Fantastic) (1:43:43)             

Synopsis: This video, produced by C-SPAN2: BookTV in 2006, features a lecture by Richard Dawkins on his book, The God Delusion and atheism, or “the God hypothesis.”  This video should be used in tandem with supplementary materials included on the companion website for Chapter 8.

Link to helpful information:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KvN4saTlHo

An Additional Option on the State of Religion in America at the Close of the Twentieth Century

God in America, Episode 6, Of God and Caesar (55:17)

Synopsis:  This video, produced by PBS in 2010 for American Experience and Frontline, provides a conclusion to its series on religion in America.  It is a useful resource for a final conversation on the history of religion in America, its current state, and its possible future.

Link to helpful information:

http://www.pbs.org/video/frontline-god-in-america-six-of-god-and-caesar/

http://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/study-guide/six.html

http://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/transcripts/hour-six.html