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Faith in Freedom : Propaganda, Presidential Politics, and the Making of an American Religion / Andrew R. Polk.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2021]Copyright date: ©2021Description: 1 online resource (270 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9781501759222
  • 9781501759239
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 303.3/75097309044 23
LOC classification:
  • BR115.P7 P575 2021
  • BR115.P7 P65 2021
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Religion, War, and Unity -- Part One: Roosevelt -- 1. Removing Unnecessary and Artificial Divisions -- 2. Uniting against a Common Foe -- Part Two: Truman -- 3. Building a Better World -- 4. Filling the Void -- Part Three: Eisenhower -- 5. Creating the Space between Church and State -- 6. Being Religious in America -- Conclusion: Lasting Legacies of an American Faith -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
Summary: In Faith in Freedom, Andrew R. Polk argues that the American civil religion so many have identified as indigenous to the founding ideology was, in fact, the result of a strategic campaign of religious propaganda. Far from being the natural result of the nation's religious underpinning or the later spiritual machinations of conservative Protestants, American civil religion and the resultant "Christian nationalism" of today were crafted by secular elites in the middle of the twentieth century. Polk's genealogy of the national motto, "In God We Trust," revises the very meaning of the contemporary American nation.Polk shows how Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S Truman, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, working with politicians, advertising executives, and military public relations experts, exploited denominational religious affiliations and beliefs in order to unite Americans during the Second World War and, then, the early Cold War. Armed opposition to the Soviet Union was coupled with militant support free economic markets, local control of education and housing, and liberties of speech and worship. These preferences were cultivated by state actors so as to support a set of right-wing positions including anti-communism, the Jim Crow status quo, and limited taxation and regulation.Faith in Freedom is a pioneering work of American religious history. By assessing the ideas, policies, and actions of three US Presidents and their White House staff, Polk sheds light on the origins of the ideological, religious, and partisan divides that describe the American polity today.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9781501759239

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Religion, War, and Unity -- Part One: Roosevelt -- 1. Removing Unnecessary and Artificial Divisions -- 2. Uniting against a Common Foe -- Part Two: Truman -- 3. Building a Better World -- 4. Filling the Void -- Part Three: Eisenhower -- 5. Creating the Space between Church and State -- 6. Being Religious in America -- Conclusion: Lasting Legacies of an American Faith -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

In Faith in Freedom, Andrew R. Polk argues that the American civil religion so many have identified as indigenous to the founding ideology was, in fact, the result of a strategic campaign of religious propaganda. Far from being the natural result of the nation's religious underpinning or the later spiritual machinations of conservative Protestants, American civil religion and the resultant "Christian nationalism" of today were crafted by secular elites in the middle of the twentieth century. Polk's genealogy of the national motto, "In God We Trust," revises the very meaning of the contemporary American nation.Polk shows how Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S Truman, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, working with politicians, advertising executives, and military public relations experts, exploited denominational religious affiliations and beliefs in order to unite Americans during the Second World War and, then, the early Cold War. Armed opposition to the Soviet Union was coupled with militant support free economic markets, local control of education and housing, and liberties of speech and worship. These preferences were cultivated by state actors so as to support a set of right-wing positions including anti-communism, the Jim Crow status quo, and limited taxation and regulation.Faith in Freedom is a pioneering work of American religious history. By assessing the ideas, policies, and actions of three US Presidents and their White House staff, Polk sheds light on the origins of the ideological, religious, and partisan divides that describe the American polity today.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 01. Dez 2022)