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Hellfire Nation: The Politics of Sin in American History
This extraordinary retelling of American political history shows that—despite the clear separation of church and state—religion lies at the heart of American politics.
“This is American history the way I like it, prodigiously researched and vivaciously told. Mr. Morone has a knack for peeling off veneers, for locating the surprising fact, for adopting the unexpected and illuminating slant. He is a rarity, a scholar who is never boring.”—Tracy Kidder, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Soul of a New Machine
“Hellfire Nation [places] much of our public life in its proper soul-searching context—and its careful anatomy of the hand-in-glove relations between the American state and the American faithful is both welcome and illuminating.”—Chris Lehmann, Washington Post Book World
“This is American history the way I like it, prodigiously researched and vivaciously told. Mr. Morone has a knack for peeling off veneers, for locating the surprising fact, for adopting the unexpected and illuminating slant. He is a rarity, a scholar who is never boring.”—Tracy Kidder, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Soul of a New Machine
“Hellfire Nation [places] much of our public life in its proper soul-searching context—and its careful anatomy of the hand-in-glove relations between the American state and the American faithful is both welcome and illuminating.”—Chris Lehmann, Washington Post Book World
592 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
November 19, 2023
it did get pretty repetitive by the end
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October 3, 2010This is my pre-election political book. Democrats aren't perfect, but this broad overview of American politics from the Puritan age to the present sure makes me glad to be one!
December 20, 2022
Morone examines U.S. history through the lens of competing moral visions, and shows also how moral battles in this country tend to center around race and sex (acknowledged but not overtly analyzed in his case studies is the fact that everyone, always, pleads that their cause is 'for the children'). It's an interesting -- and long -- study, and worth the read.
From a variety of disputes during colonial days, then down through abolition, prohibition, the 20th century labor and civil rights movements, Morone's attention narrows just as U.S. society congeals and homogenizes -- messily but steadily, conflict by conflict.
One of the most interesting aspects of Morone's investigation is his observation that while causes fade from consciousness (even if they return in altered form a generation later), the civic repercussions of those causes never go away. In other words, in one way or another, each victorious group codifies and enforces its vision through government, law, and institutions like communications (Morone pays a lot of attention to the role of the postal service in earlier eras; it is a bit unfortunate that he does not analyze quite so thoroughly the role of mass media...and when it comes to the internet? Well, the scope of his book ends during the Bush W. years, when social media was just emerging).
The saddest element of the book is the chronic oppression and political footballing of minorities -- especially African Americans -- and women. It's unsettling to observe how often whole classes of people are used as rhetorical devices and negotiating gambits. And why is it that the hallmark fist of bigotry Americans push in the face of every new wave of immigrants eventually softens into an open hand, except when it comes to our African American brothers and sisters? For all his examination of the plight of blacks, this is territory Morone doesn't wade into.
Throughout the book the author does a more consistent job than most of representing all sides in each of the eras he explores, although when it's said and done Morone's preference for progressive, social gospel causes is obvious, and his occasional use of utterly unsubtle pejoratives when describing conservatives becomes exasperating.
I feel that this book might have cut deeper and delivered a sterner challenge and warning if it had been more unflinching in representing (most) causes, left or right, up or down, as the spawn of U.S., utopian zealotry that they are, and if he had spent more time exploring how the institutions that one era of winners erects to force everyone to follow their way eventually mutate into the systems of oppression (or simple resistance to growth) which the offspring may come to resent and fight against.
For in our society's inexhaustible efforts to separate angels from demons and force heaven into existence by shaming and purging the devil, our most reliable product -- vis a vis Morone's observation that witch-hunting demonizes the hunters -- seems to be strife. We manifest our own demons, create suffering rather than joy, and nurture in our hearts the very evil we propose to scour from others.
This is not to undercut the real progress that have been made over time, but I often wonder how different might we and society be if, instead of constantly spinning up mythic wars of good versus evil, we all cooled our tempers, practiced humility, embraced rather than striking our neighbors, and began to patiently puzzle through how we might amalgamate the best of all experiences and perspectives, since no one is all right, and no one is all wrong.
I look back on the New Deal era, for example, the fruits of which people of my father's generation idealize even as they vilify the structures that produced that halcyon era (for some, not all). Morone titles the 30s to late 60s as the high tide of the social gospel. Can we return to such a spirit, even if it takes on a different structural form? How much further could we be -- or can we get -- if we begin to think of ourselves, all of us, as one team, rather than as vicious competitors fighting for scraps of comfort, dignity, morality? Time will tell, I suppose beginning with the simple choice to believe it's possible.
From a variety of disputes during colonial days, then down through abolition, prohibition, the 20th century labor and civil rights movements, Morone's attention narrows just as U.S. society congeals and homogenizes -- messily but steadily, conflict by conflict.
One of the most interesting aspects of Morone's investigation is his observation that while causes fade from consciousness (even if they return in altered form a generation later), the civic repercussions of those causes never go away. In other words, in one way or another, each victorious group codifies and enforces its vision through government, law, and institutions like communications (Morone pays a lot of attention to the role of the postal service in earlier eras; it is a bit unfortunate that he does not analyze quite so thoroughly the role of mass media...and when it comes to the internet? Well, the scope of his book ends during the Bush W. years, when social media was just emerging).
The saddest element of the book is the chronic oppression and political footballing of minorities -- especially African Americans -- and women. It's unsettling to observe how often whole classes of people are used as rhetorical devices and negotiating gambits. And why is it that the hallmark fist of bigotry Americans push in the face of every new wave of immigrants eventually softens into an open hand, except when it comes to our African American brothers and sisters? For all his examination of the plight of blacks, this is territory Morone doesn't wade into.
Throughout the book the author does a more consistent job than most of representing all sides in each of the eras he explores, although when it's said and done Morone's preference for progressive, social gospel causes is obvious, and his occasional use of utterly unsubtle pejoratives when describing conservatives becomes exasperating.
I feel that this book might have cut deeper and delivered a sterner challenge and warning if it had been more unflinching in representing (most) causes, left or right, up or down, as the spawn of U.S., utopian zealotry that they are, and if he had spent more time exploring how the institutions that one era of winners erects to force everyone to follow their way eventually mutate into the systems of oppression (or simple resistance to growth) which the offspring may come to resent and fight against.
For in our society's inexhaustible efforts to separate angels from demons and force heaven into existence by shaming and purging the devil, our most reliable product -- vis a vis Morone's observation that witch-hunting demonizes the hunters -- seems to be strife. We manifest our own demons, create suffering rather than joy, and nurture in our hearts the very evil we propose to scour from others.
This is not to undercut the real progress that have been made over time, but I often wonder how different might we and society be if, instead of constantly spinning up mythic wars of good versus evil, we all cooled our tempers, practiced humility, embraced rather than striking our neighbors, and began to patiently puzzle through how we might amalgamate the best of all experiences and perspectives, since no one is all right, and no one is all wrong.
I look back on the New Deal era, for example, the fruits of which people of my father's generation idealize even as they vilify the structures that produced that halcyon era (for some, not all). Morone titles the 30s to late 60s as the high tide of the social gospel. Can we return to such a spirit, even if it takes on a different structural form? How much further could we be -- or can we get -- if we begin to think of ourselves, all of us, as one team, rather than as vicious competitors fighting for scraps of comfort, dignity, morality? Time will tell, I suppose beginning with the simple choice to believe it's possible.
November 30, 2025
I'd like to give the book a 2.8 or a 3.4
but when you are way too selective in your bending of history
objectivity is long gone with every turn of the page
It's like identity politics being told to you by Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet
/////////
the wild Amazone
This is American history the way I like it, prodigiously researched and vivaciously told. Mr. Morone has a knack for peeling off veneers, for locating the surprising fact, for adopting the unexpected and illuminating slant. He is a rarity, a scholar who is never boring.
Tracy Kidder, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Soul of a New Machine
//////
Good history, but only average politics
6/10
Morone's study is a fascinating attempt to reinterpret American history through the lens of religion and morality.
However, this laudable effort is damaged by his insistence upon maintaining the traditional academic liberal lenses of "race, class, gender" in every historical era, as if there were no other ways to understand what happened.
He also does not take religion seriously enough to understand why it causes people to act as they do, I walked away feeling like he was openly contemptuous of religion, despite his apparent interest in it.
Newsman78
//////
If you buy it, buy it cheap
4/10
Hellfire Nation is entertaining, and Marone's prose is engaging. Yet most of the history in this work appears to be derivative and highly selective.
Marone warns at certain points that historians would be uncomfortable with his statements, and I must confess that I was. Marone tends to use his truly provocative idea - that morality affects politics in America - as a jumping off point for discussions of why we should all just mind our own business. This is the only virtue he seems to extol. Marone has a good topic, and many of his insights are valid, but at many points he seems to move beyond description to prescription.
Jason Fowler
November 1, 2017
I cannot recommend this book enough. For those interested in how politics and religious movements work together (and against each other) in America, look no further. While this book's size may intimidate some readers, it flows well with a great narrative voice telling a story I knew had to exist. The author's attention to detail and little quips throughout make it an entertaining read. Five stars all around.
September 21, 2017
The best book I've read on American political culture.
January 8, 2023
Very interesting look at the history of the United States, but from the duel view of Communitarianism vs Puritanism in our moral judgements that guide our political decisions.
October 5, 2023
Book is a surprisingly easy read for the level of content it contains, and Morone’s writing style is sharp and accessible. Found his arguments new and compelling.
October 7, 2011
Subtitled, "The Politics of Sin in American History," Morone's book describes the historical cycle in American history of moral crises driving politics, beginning with the Puritans. His thesis is that these crises follow a fairly predictable repeating pattern: moralizers denounce some social evil, the general public is rallied both by opposition to the evil and to the demonic "others" that profit by or are seduced by the evil (and this usually ties into patterns of racism and sexism), the authorities are compelled to take action and typically overreact with draconian and sometimes disastrous results. Morone begins with the Puritans themselves, who originally rallied "The City on the Hill" against evil Indians with their demonic ways and seduction of white women. Once the Indians were all killed or driven off, the Puritans turned on themselves with the famous witch trials. An interesting point I hadn't realized: Tituba, the slave woman who eventually became the focus of witch hysteria was not, as commonly portrayed, African; she was actually a Native American from the Caribbean, though still a slave.
The book then recounts numerous instances of this pattern of moral outrage repeating itself throughout American history, from the Abolitionist Movement and the Civil War, to the Suffragettes, to Prohibition, the War on Drugs and (briefly, since this book was only published in 2003), the War on Terror. The other theme involves the tension between Puritanism (with its focus on moral condemnation of sin) and another American meme, the Social Gospel (focusing on the causes of sin, rather than merely punishing the sinner). For Morone, the high water mark for the Social Gospel as a driving force in politics came in the brief period from 1933 (The New Deal) to 1973 (as the 'Sixties came crashing to an end, and Roe v. Wade transferred the force of moral persuasion in public life from the Left to the Right, where it firmly remains to today). One of my complaints, however, is that the author does not further develop the differences between the Social Gospel and classic liberalism, though to be fair, at 497 pages (not counting the extensive notes) this is already an exhaustively-researched work. Nevertheless, it is a surprisingly easy read for an academic work (Morone is a professor of political science at Brown University). I was frankly shocked (though I should have known better) by some of the grotesque detail on the truly venal and cruel nature of racism in America, from wars of genocide against Native Americans to the terrorist state of the post Civil War pre Civil Rights South. I don't like to constantly harp on the long and sad history of racism, but often the reality of how bad things really were is glossed-over with feel-good rhetoric, particularly at this time of year when white politicians dutifully trot out press releases praising Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., when the vast majority of them would if he were still alive be bitterly denouncing the theories of economic justice he was exploring just before his assassination.
In short, I recommend "Hellfire Nation" if you are interested in political history and especially if you want to explore the origins of the Culture Wars that actually stretch back to the very beginning of America.
The book then recounts numerous instances of this pattern of moral outrage repeating itself throughout American history, from the Abolitionist Movement and the Civil War, to the Suffragettes, to Prohibition, the War on Drugs and (briefly, since this book was only published in 2003), the War on Terror. The other theme involves the tension between Puritanism (with its focus on moral condemnation of sin) and another American meme, the Social Gospel (focusing on the causes of sin, rather than merely punishing the sinner). For Morone, the high water mark for the Social Gospel as a driving force in politics came in the brief period from 1933 (The New Deal) to 1973 (as the 'Sixties came crashing to an end, and Roe v. Wade transferred the force of moral persuasion in public life from the Left to the Right, where it firmly remains to today). One of my complaints, however, is that the author does not further develop the differences between the Social Gospel and classic liberalism, though to be fair, at 497 pages (not counting the extensive notes) this is already an exhaustively-researched work. Nevertheless, it is a surprisingly easy read for an academic work (Morone is a professor of political science at Brown University). I was frankly shocked (though I should have known better) by some of the grotesque detail on the truly venal and cruel nature of racism in America, from wars of genocide against Native Americans to the terrorist state of the post Civil War pre Civil Rights South. I don't like to constantly harp on the long and sad history of racism, but often the reality of how bad things really were is glossed-over with feel-good rhetoric, particularly at this time of year when white politicians dutifully trot out press releases praising Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., when the vast majority of them would if he were still alive be bitterly denouncing the theories of economic justice he was exploring just before his assassination.
In short, I recommend "Hellfire Nation" if you are interested in political history and especially if you want to explore the origins of the Culture Wars that actually stretch back to the very beginning of America.
November 18, 2013
One of the best and most readable works of historical scholarship I've read. Morone weaves together anecdotes and vignettes with larger themes of how cycles of moralistic religious revivalism have driven our politics throughout American history.
He deftly connects the dots between religion, race, immigration, and social activism and plausibly places them at the root of all sorts of major upheavals in the American story. As someone that often is much more likely to attribute economic drivers to these phenomenon, I am not the most likely target for a book of this kind, yet it won me over.
The book proceeds chronologically, beginning with the angst of early settlers and ending with the religious and political force of the Christian Right. It's a thick book, and though it preaches many of the same themes, it is not repetitive. Marone, in addition to his skill in recognizing historical patterns, is a good writer to boot, keeping the book moving forward, and highlighting both interesting "characters" as well as broader social movements.
If you are interested in this subject area, this volume is indispensable.
He deftly connects the dots between religion, race, immigration, and social activism and plausibly places them at the root of all sorts of major upheavals in the American story. As someone that often is much more likely to attribute economic drivers to these phenomenon, I am not the most likely target for a book of this kind, yet it won me over.
The book proceeds chronologically, beginning with the angst of early settlers and ending with the religious and political force of the Christian Right. It's a thick book, and though it preaches many of the same themes, it is not repetitive. Marone, in addition to his skill in recognizing historical patterns, is a good writer to boot, keeping the book moving forward, and highlighting both interesting "characters" as well as broader social movements.
If you are interested in this subject area, this volume is indispensable.
May 30, 2015
(review to follow, hopefully)
Hightlights of review topics.
We are not all Puritans.
Prohibition arose from a much deeper seated philosophy and errant belief than what he proposes. It was co-opted by many groups, but their distortion of the topic was not as important to its implementation as this author tries to sell. It was far more anti-immigrant than it was strictly racist or as he purports another Southern anti black screed.
While dancing around the topic, Vatican II was not as much a revolutionary process for the Roman Church as the author would try to sell us on in one section as it was a re-invention. Also questionable sourcing on what he relies on for his commentary on this topic.
Relying on sensationalist and overly politicized reference material (including Time and Life magazines) as his primary or only information for a variety of topics.
Separating political movements from the leaders backgrounds doesn't work.
[all preliminary notes at this time]
April 22, 2015
Revealing the inner Puritan in all of us, James Morone limns an impressive portrait of morality in American politics. Morone classifies American history as a revolving-door of moral revivals, with the newest custodian of moral purity speaking out against the foreign and immoral "them", be they Native Americans, communists, or Catholics. The political heart of America is vivified by moral crusades to restore America's image as a "city upon a hill"; whether by preachers in pulpits or politicians in office, moral commentary has had just as much power to warp the American consciousness as any other force. Moron's Hellfire Nation is a wonderful construction of this overlooked America, one described as a continuous battle of "us" vs. "them."
March 26, 2014
a great set of foundational lines of inquiry, a slick usage of data, and a broad enough focus to consider the politics of gender, race, nationality, class, and so on with coherence.
argues that religious visions have inspired both nastiness and progress in US history.
the only significant problem is that part one ends at 1776 and part two begins at 1800; this skips over both the revolutionary war and the constitutional convention. it might be argued that this period merits a book of its own (perhaps several dozen have already been written), but i would've liked morone's investigatory reasoning to extend over it. that caveat aside, an important contribution.
argues that religious visions have inspired both nastiness and progress in US history.
the only significant problem is that part one ends at 1776 and part two begins at 1800; this skips over both the revolutionary war and the constitutional convention. it might be argued that this period merits a book of its own (perhaps several dozen have already been written), but i would've liked morone's investigatory reasoning to extend over it. that caveat aside, an important contribution.
June 13, 2007
Morone is amazing! This book is great if you want to look at some "hot" topics in American history—race, sex, violence, drugs, immigration. He compiles historical evidence to answer some of the most challenging quesitons our nation has and continues to face. He is also a great lecturer!
January 27, 2009
A book truly interesting and worth reading regardless of specific interest in politics. Morone makes a fascinating argument regarding the affect of America's Puritan past on practically all aspects of our history and our culture today.
April 22, 2011
This is a magnificent book on how the thread of religion plays out in "us" against "them" in All of Americas upheavals, from the Puritans to The War on Drugs. Highly recommend for anyone interested in American Political History. Well written and entertaining!
September 11, 2012
I really enjoyed this book. Morone lays out his arguments in a very clear and concise manner. He offers new insight to many different episodes in American history and it very much ties into politics today. I highly suggest this book if it's the kind of thing your interested in.
Read
March 24, 2013I thought this was a great book. It's one of those history books that makes history interesting. It addresses a fairly narrow set of topics in American history but relates them to the broader social trends.
May 8, 2007
It's basically an overview of politics/religion in the history of the U.S. I didn't love it but I learned a lot and it would be very interesting to someone who was into history.
December 9, 2014
Very great compilation of America's culture wars since the 1600s.
January 28, 2015
One of my all-time favorites. It chronicles how our Puritan heritage has shaped our politics and made it so easy for us as Americans to fall into the trap of moral outrage.
January 19, 2016
There is an inner Puritan lurking in us all!
Excellent analysis of entanglement of church and state, reformer and unrepentant, politician and preacher.
Excellent analysis of entanglement of church and state, reformer and unrepentant, politician and preacher.
Want to read
August 17, 2008Spectacular history of moral panics in the U.S., from witch hunts to the Moral Majority.
November 10, 2009
As interesting as it was, I feel as thought the same thing could have been done with fewer pages.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews