The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America

by Frances FitzGerald

* Winner of the 2017 National Book Critics Circle Award * National Book Award Finalist * Time magazine Top 10 Nonfiction Book of the Year * New York Times Notable Book * Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2017 This “epic history” (The Boston Globe) from Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Frances FitzGerald is the first to tell the powerful, dramatic story of the Evangelical movement in America—from the Puritan era to the 2016 election. “We have long needed a fair-minded overview of this vitally important religious sensibility, and FitzGerald has now provided it” (The New York Times Book Review).The evangelical movement began in the revivals of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, known in America as the Great Awakenings. A populist rebellion against the established churches, it became the dominant religious force in the country. During the nineteenth century white evangelicals split apart, first North versus South, and then, modernist versus fundamentalist. After World War II, Billy Graham attracted enormous crowds and tried to gather all Protestants under his big tent, but the civil rights movement and the social revolution of the sixties drove them apart again. By the 1980s Jerry Falwell and other southern televangelists, such as Pat Robertson, had formed the Christian right. Protesting abortion and gay rights, they led the South into the Republican Party, and for thirty-five years they were the sole voice of evangelicals to be heard nationally. Eventually a younger generation proposed a broader agenda of issues, such as climate change, gender equality, and immigration reform. Evangelicals now constitute twenty-five percent of the American population, but they are no longer monolithic in their politics. They range from Tea Party supporters to social reformers. Still, with the decline of religious faith generally, FitzGerald suggests that evangelical churches must embrace ethnic minorities if they are to survive. “A well-written, thought-provoking, and deeply researched history that is impressive for its scope and level of detail” (The Wall Street Journal). Her “brilliant book could not have been more timely, more well-researched, more well-written, or more necessary” (The American Scholar).

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Religion, Politics, Christianity, American History, Audiobook

753 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 4, 2017

About the author

Frances FitzGerald is an American journalist and historian.

Reviews

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an extraordinary history and analysis of the Evangelist movement since the Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th centuries up to the Christian Right of today’s American political landscape.

In 2017, I read Joel Green's Devil's Bargain to understand how Bannon and Breitbart used propaganda to swing the 2016 election to Drumpf. I wanted to read this book to see how and why Drumpf got the evangelical vote (and how it has infected the GOP like a cancer).

Frances Fitzgerald teaches us about the origins of radical Calvinism leading to the Great Awakenings although I needed to take extensive notes to recall which figure was associated with which branch (Baptist, Presbyterian or Methodist for the most part) and what their particularities were. The first shock for me was learning that in 1844, the Southern Baptist Convention was created explicitly to make excuses for slavery, ie. religion is one thing, slave-holding another. I was not previously aware that this was so explicit and it explains a lot of things (like more recent evangelical support of Roy Moore in Alabama and more broadly support by evangelicals of Drumpf). It was fascinating to learn the backgrounds of many legendary names that I grew up hearing about: Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, Francis Shaeffer, and others. I grew up in a fundamentalist church and this book really helped me understand what was behind the rhetoric. It also convinced me that I did the right thing in ejecting myself from that world. It is interesting though that many progressive causes in the US came out of this movement (orphanages, concepts of social security and solidarity), and yet so many degressive and destructive things as well (rapid homophobia, misogyny, the aforementioned excuses for slavery). A few other interesting tidbits:
1/ lots of loonies from my home state Florida. Not surprising but alarming. No wonder I brought up that way!
2/ the enduring power of Pat Robertson was scary and just plain creepy
3/ it is surprising the amount of anti-Semitism that is wrapped up in many of the doctrines despite the difficulties they have to reconcile these ideas with their literal reading of the Bible

I also noted with some sense of horror the role of Drumpf lawyer Jay Sekulow who has been on the lunatic fringe of the Evangelical Right for nearly 30 years, on the forefront of their racist fights in favor of segregation and against public schools as well as against gays and against women.

I'll probably have to come back to this book in the future because it is so incredibly dense and informative. Highly, highly recommended if you want to understand a bit of how people can be convinced to vote and act against their best interest. Next read to understanding the 2016 election of Drumpf will be about the economic model in Democracy in Chains by Nancy MacLean.

Still if not more than ever, a must read - particularly when some evangelicals are trying to paint Drumpf as a repentant xtian which seems to this reader as a massive stretch of fantasy. It seems to me that they are attempting to hasten the clock towards what they hope will be a pre-millenial period. Scary times indeed.

[Austin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally I made myself take on a book that I didn't expect to enjoy (I am challenging myself to read 5, so had to get into it). And I took it on by the horns, in the topic I find perhaps the most obnoxious and perplexing in alternation: American Evangelicalism. This movement, or philosophy, is here defined by: "An evangelist is one who disseminates the gospels by zealous preaching... Evangelicalism is the religion."

I don't dislike evangelicals as a whole, because they are people, and I don't dislike people as a group. But I do dislike evangelicalism as a world view. What I dislike most about the philosophy is that zealous preaching. So much yelling and certainty. So little room for dissenting thought, pluralism, and all the things I find valuable. I also object to their almost universal idea that America used to be a "good" (read: christian) nation, and now is in decay. There is something wrong with the human brain in general (not just among evangelicals) that makes people believe everything is going to hell in a handbasket, even when we can see we're making real progress. But evangelicals take this to an extreme, and that seems to have lead them to be on the wrong side of basically every issues (see slavery and homophobia).

Reading into the history, it is easy to see anti-intellectualism in the basic roots of the movement. The origin of evangelicalism was a reaction against the control of religious teaching by the educated, and their upstart versions of Christianity could spread faster without an educated clergy. You can find positivity in fighting against the distinction between gentleman and peasant. But this anti-intellectualism has huge consequences when it's a real bloc but the still can only generate a few crazies who claim to be the "thinkers" of the church. There are only a few authors who try to steer the movement with rational argument, and they are really whacky and out there and don't generate the same sturm and drang of the charismatic leaders, who don't bother with an argument other than they think that's what is in the bible.

Early on, and for a surprising majority of their history, the evangelicals mostly argued with other christians about things that only matter to christians. They were not the furthest right in plenty of topics, and weren't actively engaged in a lot of the politics we now associate them with. There was a hard turn after billy graham with the modern firebrands such as Falwell that we associate with real hate.

One comfort to me that I hadn't really ever fully appreciated: they're not really getting what they want. Republicans have given them lip service for decades now but actually have never pushed for their agenda (because their ideas are craaaaazy and unpopular).

I hadn't realized just how much evangelical leaders despise "secular humanism" (the term comes up over and over as blame-worth for all supposed ills). This makes me proud to be a secular humanist, but they aren't many of us really and we're nothing like a bloc so I'm a bit perplexed at how we have allegedly made so much impact.

Many specific cases gave me chilling echos. Pat Robertson ran for President under the slogan 'restore the greatness of America through moral strength' - sound familiar? According to FitzGerald, he was also used to 'doing a tv show where nobody challenged what he said... he used to get on his program and make statements and maybe they were true, maybe they weren't, but nobody challenged him.' Perhaps he was ahead of his time...

One topic that seemed incredibly thin here was the personal wealth accumulation involved. FitzGerald does cover the financial booms and busts of the radio and tv megachurches, but doesn't explore how the garden variety demagogue has or has not lined their own pockets. I have seen enough individual coverage of embezzlement and lavish pastor lifestyles to really want to see this taken on. Was it the exception or the rule? Either way, the personal finances only come up a handful of times in the text.

The history does remind us that not all white evangelicals are of the Christian right - there are diversity of views. Especially in recent years, it seems like evangelicals are splitting from the decades of single-issue hardline and caring about more diverse topics that shape our country. As a pluralist at heart, this gives me some hope that even the movement I see as having done so much harm could turn to a force for good. But I won't hold my breath.

FitzGerald also identifies a recent trend that the evangelical leadership seems to have largely lost control over their own consituency. Much of this was on social issues, but then it came right back around to bite the rational world when the leadership roundly rejected trump on moral grounds, but an astonishing number of the 'flock' voted for him anyways. Be careful what you wish for.

So what did I get out of it? It was a tough read, not because of the writing but because it is to me pretty much a book without any protagonist, there's the ones who hate everything I believe in and think my friends and I are going to hell, and the ones that are more polity but still think we're going to hell. But, despite the slog, I did gain a major appreciation of:
1) the movement hasn't always been so negative or so political
2) there are some signs it might take on more positive aspects in the future
3) they're just people like anyone else, however misguided, and they want a better life for themselves and their family. We just disagree pretty dramatically about what that looks like.

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52 books in 52 weeks update:
book number: 16 / 52

scorecard (see below):
W: 9/26
NW: 6/26
NA: 7/20
D: 1/5
F: 6
NF: 9

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Notes: I'm trying to read 52 books this year. To make sure I'm getting a broad range, I'm tracking some metrics. Open to more if folks have suggestions. My goal is to read books that are:
at least half by women
at least half not by white people
at least 20 by non-americans
at least 5 that I don't think I'll like or agree with going in

I'll also go for about half fiction and half non-fiction

[Steve Matlak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Evangelical reviewer here. A riveting overview of the major ideas and figures in Evangelical history from 1740 to present. The author is not an evangelical, but gives a comprehensive and factually accurate description of us, the good and the bad.

A couple criticisms. First, the latter half of the book focuses almost exclusively on evangelical engagement with politics. This is certainly a part of the story--and the most controversial and interesting, even amongst ourselves. But she mostly missed describing evangelical engagement with the broader world. We are everywhere on the front lines doing development and relief and missionary work (World Relief, World Vision, Compassion Intl, International Justice Mission, etc.) Most of our focus is trying to improve ourselves and families and making the world a better place. Politics are not much discussed as congregations are too politically diverse.

Second criticism: the author tends to focus too much on fringe/freak elements of the Charismatic movement, especially the televangelists. These are rejected as loons and thieves by Evangelicals. The author notes they are not Evangelicals, but I guess because they make for interesting reading, she gives them chapters of coverage.

Overall though, the book is a fantastic and accurate portrayal of our history and nuances. It's a page turner, and I learned a great deal.

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

FitzGerald follows the development of the evangelical movement from the 18th century to the present focusing on theology as well as the impact on society and politics. It is a detailed presentation that will be best appreciated by those with a deep interest. My notes follow.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century most Americans were in established Protestant denominations: Congregationalists, Anglican, Baptist or Presbyterian. These structured religions embedded in doctrine lost their appeal to largely uneducated and increasingly spread out Americans. Evangelical spinoffs formed and prospered led by circuit riding preachers who taught that all you need for salvation is to be born again, to receive the Holy Spirit. Splitting from the Anglican Church, the Methodists were the most successful. Similarly Separate Baptists and New Side Presbyterians spun off. The First Great Awakening took place between 1740 and the Revolutionary War. The Second Great Awakening occurred between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. By the time both revival periods were over, most Protestants belonged to evangelical sects.

The battle between the new sects and establishment churches fueled the separation of church and state in the Constitution. States imposed taxes to support their established religion. Evangelicals deeply resented paying for someone else’s religion. The establishment religions saw themselves as the enlightened leadership the uneducated citizenry needed. Evangelicals rejected social hierarchy and egalitarianism became American. Evangelical ministers in the north became leaders in the antislavery movement and while not advocating women’s rights they empowered women activists in their churches. Many early leaders of women’s rights started out as antislavery activists. In 1845 northern and southern evangelical sects split over slavery. The southern sects stayed evangelical relying on personal experience rather than doctrine and they supported slavery. The northern sects became less evangelical and faced German Lutheran and Irish Catholic immigration.

In the fifty years after 1870 America changed dramatically in the north with urbanization and massive immigration of non-Protestants. New ideas in philology and new biblical scholarship challenged long standing assumptions and interpretations as did modern ideas such as Darwinism. By the 1920’s northern Protestant churches were splitting. Many liberal churches began preaching the Social Gospel. Conservative churches rejected modernism embracing fundamentalism, which held to literal interpretations of the bible. Dispensationalism arose in this context reviving apocalyptic scenarios in which Jews rebuild Jerusalem, true Christians are raptured, followed by the Great tribulation until Christ returns to bring in one thousand years of peace, the Millennium. This premillennialist view was held by most fundamentalists and was widely popularized by the Scofield Reference Bible. Readers often took the extensive notes to be as authoritative as the bible itself.

Premillennialists saw the British capture of Jerusalem in WWI and the atheistic communism takeover of Russia as indicating that Christ’s return was near. The religious split became increasingly political, particularly regarding entry into the League of Nations. Liberal sects that supported the league seemed to the premillennialists to be part of the unfolding world disorder. Liberals were increasingly seen as evil. Fundamentalists transformed into nationalists and militant antimodernists. Racism surfaced in the Ku Klux Klan, revitalized by clergy, and in restricting immigration to Northern Europeans. The Scopes trial helped the liberals as Bryan was depicted an ignorant yokel in the press. The failure of prohibition quieted the fundamentalists. The southern churches continued to deliver a personal folk based religion devoid of conflict from any liberal notions.

During the 1930s and 40s fundamentalists established their own bible schools to train pastors. By the 1950s fundamentalist sects were dividing into two groups. One was the militant separatists that attacked mainstream religious organizations and each other. The others called themselves evangelicals. They wanted to be taken seriously by society and have a cultural impact. In the 1950s, the profoundly influential Billy Graham emerged to give the evangelicals a mainstream national profile. He seemingly united conservatives and liberals, but he tied religion to right wing politics. Graham made statements sympathetic to McCarthy and attacked liberal policies. Liberal Protestants rejected the notion that one had to be a born again Christian to be truly American. Graham befriended Eisenhower who in tandem tied his political positions to religion. Eisenhower put “In God We Trust” on currency and “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. Around 1955 Graham softened his tone and engaged with liberal Protestant leaders to broaden his appeal. Fundamentalists accused him of “consorting with apostates.”

The 1960s saw dramatic social change and rebelling against convention. There was strong growth in Pentecostalism. Conservative Protestant sects came out strongly against Kennedy for president fearing domination by the Pope. The powerful Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) stood against a constitutional amendment to put prayer in schools, fearing funding for Catholic schools. In the south, many schools taught the bible anyway. Graham refused to endorse the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and equated civil rights activists with the Ku Klux Klan. The distinction between conservative and liberal sects now revolved around social action. Graham, who President Johnson frequently invited to the White House, supported the VietNam War and condemned protesters. He was a big supporter of Nixon becoming the White House preacher. Fundamentalists at their core believe in order and authority. As Fitzgerald put it, “…children were to obey their parents, wives their husbands, and citizens the state, just as all humans were to obey God. And God, as Graham once said, ‘does not tolerate disorder’.”

In the 1970s Graham stuck by Nixon until the Watergate tapes came out. Graham was very upset by Nixon’s use of profanity and vowed to stay out of politics. His political relevance was fading anyway as TV preachers proliferated and revivalist preachers were pushed to the background. The Catholic Church condemned the Roe v Wade decision. While evangelicals were against abortion on demand, most felt abortion in cases of rape, incest and danger to the mother’s health should be allowed. The 1970s saw the SBC taken over by fundamentalists. Fundamentalists rose rapidly in the south in the 60s and 70s as congregations were confronted with modernism that had precipitated controversy in the north forty years earlier. Jerry Falwell began using mass marketing techniques to raise funds for his megachurch, university, radio and TV spots. Falwell freely attacked other church leaders and held to strict fundamental values.

In 1979 Falwell started the Moral Majority to fight “secular humanism”. Together with televangelists such as Pat Robertson, like-minded preachers and Catholics, they became a new political force under the banner of moral decency lashing out at pornography, homosexuality, abortion, feminism, the Equal Rights Amendment, sex education, and anything liberal. Falwell was strongly anticommunist always embedding patriotism in his message. Falwell’s larger message was that America needed to return to God to spare his judgement. America’s moral decay was undermining the nation economically and militarily, thus personal moral decisions determined the fate of the nation. Thus the “immoral minority” were endangering the nation. This overtly political movement rose quickly from many denominations.

In 1980, Falwell and other fundamentalist leaders embraced Ronald Reagan. Similarly Reagan played up to Falwell and others, inviting Falwell to meet him at the Republican convention. Falwell noted the Republican platform “could easily be the constitution of a fundamentalist Baptist church.” But Reagan failed to move forward the conservative agenda once elected. Falwell sucked up anyway and the two continued to play off each other to enhance their popularity. In the 1984 election, Reagan ran on a positive message, convincing many America was now safe. Grassroots evangelical support for political groups fell off. Falwell dissolved the Moral Majority in 1988. The fundamentalist political movement sped up the shift of the south to the Republican Party. Liberal Protestants in turn aligned with the Democratic Party.

Pat Robertson and his Christian Coalition led the Christian right movement in the 1990s. Robertson was a charismatic with Pentecostal beliefs. He formed a TV empire with his Christian Broadcasting Network and hosted the popular 700 Club. Robertson brought together people from different denominations including Catholics. In 1988 he ran in the Republican presidential primary and did well in caucus states where his supporters were deployed effectively. Bush won the nomination and invited Robertson to speak at the convention. Many who entered the Republican Party to support Robertson stayed and exerted a strong conservative influence.

In 1992 Robertson supported Bush. Ralph Reed managed the Christian Coalition using sophisticated techniques to identify and reach voters on the Christian right. Reed noted that the 1992 Republican Party platform was, “the most conservative and the most pro-family platform in the history of this party”. It called for school prayer, abortion without exceptions, no gay rights, and cutting funds for obscene art. Bush lost but the Coalition’s candidates did well in down ballot races. Its membership increased significantly after the detested Bill Clinton won. The Coalition backed Clinton’s impeachment for the Monica Lewinski affair which backfired since most people didn’t fault Clinton for denying an affair. Reed left the Coalition, membership declined and by the end of the decade it folded.

In 2000 the religious right was disorganized. Most evangelicals voted for Bush, but 4 million fewer than voted for Dole in 1996. Bush proved to be a strong ally of the Christian right and with backing from the SBC and the James Dobson network, evangelicals turned out in force for Bush in 2004. Dobson, a strict fundamentalist, a psychologist, a prolific author, the founder of Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council, an adept organizer and a media giant who broadcast on over 2000 radio stations, took the lead for the Christian right. Bush had been a liaison to the Christian right during his father’s presidency. He learned to talk their language which gave him credibility. “Compassionate conservatism” had a specific meaning for evangelicals that would be lost on others. Bush had written an introduction to a book of the same name that was popular with conservative Christians. Similarly after 9-11 Bush used the word “evil” extensively. To fundamentalist Christians this referenced the devil as an active agent in the attack.

Bush filled his administration with many from the Christian right. Bush also funneled money to his Christian right supporters through his faith based initiative which kept no central accounting. Government money was sent to targeted religious groups to tie them to Bush. Bush political adviser Karl Rove always stayed in close touch with Christian right leaders. The Iraq invasion cemented the Christian right to Bush as their leader. The National Religious Broadcaster association lauded Bush “We recognize that God has appointed George W. Bush to leadership at this critical period in our nation’s history.” Fundamentalists saw the Middle East through the lens of their beliefs about end times and Christ’s return. Muslims replaced the Soviet Union as the devil.

In 2004, the Christian right switched to same sex marriage from abortion as their lead issue. They wanted a constitutional amendment prohibiting it. Dobson, the SBC and other leaders worked hand in hand with the Bush campaign. They held rallies, distributed materials and shared lists of voters to be targeted, focusing intensely on gay marriage and turned out their voters. During Bush’s second term the Christian right concentrated on the Supreme Court working their political levers to get their choice of judges nominated and approved. Bush did put two Christian right supported judges, Alito and Roberts, on the Court, but on abortion, school prayer, and gay marriage he failed to deliver.

In the 2000s evangelicals were increasingly split. The intense politics of the Christian right turned off many evangelicals. As Bush’s popularity decreased after the Iraq war failure so did that of his backers. While almost all evangelicals were strongly against abortion, young evangelicals were far more accepting of gays. Many evangelicals felt the narrow focus on a few litmus test issues was misplaced and issues like climate change and poverty deserved equal attention. These “new” mostly younger evangelicals took climate change seriously, while older evangelicals considered it another science contrivance like evolution. The evangelical divide contributed to Obama’s win in 2008. Obama expressed his religious values and reached out to evangelicals, an effort that helped particularly with the young. McCain, never liked by the Christian right leaders, won them over when he selected Sarah Palin as his running mate. They extolled her as one of us.

As Obama took over, the Christian right was weak. Conservative white evangelicals took their political activism to the Tea Party. They were upset by the thought that the taxes they paid were going immigrants and young freeloaders. The Christian right supported mass deportation of undocumented workers. Conservative evangelists joined with conservative Catholics to fight federal funding for abortion and contraception. The new evangelicals, while disturbed by funding for abortion, were supportive of better health care, Obama’s cap and trade plan, antipoverty programs, and immigration reform.

Many of the conservative evangelicals that had populated the Tea Party supported Trump rejecting objections from evangelicals who pointed to Trump’s womanizing, casino operations and obvious insincerity as evidenced by his opportunistic switch from a longtime pro choice stance. Those who put moral issues first among the Christian right saw their influence decline. Since 2004 evangelicals have been a declining percentage of the population and an increasing number are Latinos who usually vote Democratic. Only 10% of millennials are evangelicals while 30% of those over 65 are. Given the many twists and turns the movement has taken there is no telling what the future holds.

[Mikey B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a mountain of details in this very probing book on the influence of evangelicals on American life and politics in particular.

As per this book they successfully penetrated the inner realm of government during President George W. Bush’s term of office (2000 - 2008). But even before they were influencing policies, more so on women and education.

Page 208 the George W. Bush White House

David Frum, reported that to his discomfort Bible study attendance was “if not obligatory, not quite uncompulsory.”

The author stresses that there are many types and branches of evangelicals (fundamentalists, Pentecostals, Baptists…). And within each one there are numerous sub-branches. The constitutional “Freedom of Religion” allowed for a flourishing of diversity. It seems like anyone could branch off and set up his or her own church. Many of these sub-branches or sects moved into a very puritanical sphere as they felt the “main branch” had become contaminated by secular society.

There are many different themes explored in this book. One that really disturbs me is that many evangelicals believe in the inerrancy of the Bible – in other words every word of the Bible is the absolute truth, cannot be contested and must be adhered to. This is most frightening. I personally cannot understand why anyone could put so much emphasis on something written two thousand years ago and feel they can apply this to our society. There is a lack of self-scrutiny on behalf of those who believe in the Scriptures – and now they have influence on government policies.

Another aspect discussed is the separatism (isolationism, sectarianism) of many evangelical groups. Many want nothing to do with modern society. The author points out that during the many rural to urban migrations that occurred during the 20th century many evangelicals set up their own enclaves and churches within the city. These churches provided many group activities that kept members occupied during their free time.

This separatism also goes hand-in-hand with the libertarianism espoused by so many in the United States.

Another aspect explored is those evangelicals who are not separatist – or who move away from “separatism” in order to “save” secular society. They want to convert and spread the word. This led to plentiful evangelical charismatic leaders - Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson…

The “separatist” attitude was present in these crusaders. There is a very strong anti-modernist aspect that goes well with Biblical inerrancy. This gives a very anti-scientific (one could also say anti-rational) view of the world. They have opposed evolution and geology; they have fought successfully to oppose stem-cell research, which Obama re-instated.

There are many evangelical colleges and seminaries.

Page 448 Pasadena College (a Nazarene college)

One of his professors introduced him to the idea of biblically based psychology.

And what would this lead to? What kind of psychologist would he become?


Many use the Bible as a guide for all forms of behavior and some regard it as a book of science (incredible!). There is also the facet of the personal religious experience – and the minimization of reason and knowledge.

Page 77

The Bible “is infallible, and of divine authority in all things pertaining to faith and practice, and consequently free from all error whether of doctrine, fact, or precept.”


This has now led to the stacking of not only the Supreme Court, but courts across the land with those who have enacted legislation antithetical to human rights and women’s rights – anti-abortion, anti-reproductive rights, anti-gay, anti-LGBT, anti sex education…

Page 124 J. Gresham Machen

“Liberals”, he charged, have lost sight of “the great presumptions of Christianity,’ such as the sinfulness of man, the awful transcendence of God, and the truth of the Bible… The root of liberalism, he maintained lies in naturalism, or denial of God’s direct interventions in the origins of Christianity… liberalism was not Christianity.

When conservative evangelicals aligned themselves with the Tea Party during the Obama years, they also restricted voting rights mostly by state courts – affecting more so poor people – people of colour who would most likely vote Democratic.

Also like all religions evangelicals are most adept at playing the victim and even martyrs. They blame liberals, secularists, and atheists for attacking them and their true faith and Christianity. It reinforces their view as outsiders.

Page 160

Fundamentalist churches offered shelter from modernist ideas and “worldliness”… the saving remnant and the rightful heirs to American civilization… martyrs or potential conquerors, militancy became important to their sense of identity.”

Page 161

Their preachers kept up their diatribes against modernism long after the liberals had stopped listening to them and fought each other over tiny doctrinal differences… rhetorical aggressiveness and machismo became a part of their mystique.

There is an interesting passage in this book about the activation of the Christian Right in the late 1970’s and it was not abortion that was the trigger. The federal government wanted to tax Christian schools in the South because their students were predominantly white. This caused an uproar and united the Christian Right and made them combat the sinful IRS.

This book gives us a history of the evangelical movement starting from pre-Civil War days ( about 100 pages) and how these trends developed and became ingrained. We are provided with many portraits of evangelical preachers. Jerry Falwell was the first to be welcomed in the White House by President Reagan and as the author states Reagan himself was very adept at recruiting for the evangelical movement, promoting them frequently in his speeches.

Overall, this book is concerned with the white evangelical movement and their history of government influence. As a New York Review of Books stated “They were always here. We were just not looking at them.” There is very little on Trump as this book was published in 2017. One can see how Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again” would appeal to evangelicals obsessed with re-establishing past values that have been destroyed by liberals and secularists (and immigrants, people of colour…).

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

FitzGerald has done an amazing amount of research regarding the Evangelical movement in the United States, from its earliest roots in the 18th and 19th centuries to the formidable political power it nurtured during the last part of the 20th century through today. Indeed, the Republican Party co-opted many Evangelical political objectives with the result that Evangelicals are one of the Republican Party’s most loyal voting blocks.
Personally, I was raised as a United Methodist in the northern liberal theology tradition—supporting Government’s role in achieving social justice for the poor and disenfranchised. Apparently, in the 19th century, liberal theology challenged the whole concept of slavery. (No kidding!) So, Southern Protestant Christians focused on personal salvation instead.
In the early 20th century, Evangelicals sought to keep their faith separate from the State, believing that it was the best way to keep their religious beliefs pure. But Evangelical leaders in the latter half of the century—in their quest to obtain more and more members—preached that only by becoming involved in politics would they protect their faith from secular contamination. Thus, there entered the trend toward private schools and even home schooling. They sought to have the United States designated as a Christian country with Christian prayer returned to schools. They wanted to eliminate the Governmental social safety net. They wanted to have those services provided by the churches instead.
The modern evangelists were not steeped in theological training, but they did have a knack for marketing. They wrote books on everything from Christian child rearing to Christian marriage counseling. They used television and radio to reach the masses. And preached the urgency to get oneself right with God as the Second Coming was near. Different sects competed for membership—among them: Southern Baptists, Assembly of God, and Church of the Nazarene; but the one thing that seemed to motivate all of their memberships was the abolition of both abortion rights and gay rights.
Younger Evangelicals seem to be both more tolerant of pluralistic viewpoints and more interested in social justice issues. It will be interesting to see the evolution of the Evangelical movement in the future.
There are some gaps in FitzGerald’s exhaustive study—particularly the Evangelical movement within Black and Latino communities—but she provides a much needed understanding of the Evangelical movement and its influence on modern politics today. And most important, reinforces the wisdom of our Founding Fathers to establish Separation of Church and State. Highly recommend.

[Theo Logos · Rating 5 out of 5]

”The Christian Right, at the turn of the [21st] century, was not simply a social movement, but in part an interest group, and in part a faction of the GOP.”

”The Christian Right was no longer a movement, but simply a faction within the Republican Party.”



Frances FitzGerald’s The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America tracks the Evangelical movement in America from Jonathan Edwards to Rick Warren, from the First Great Awakening to the 2016 presidential election. She chronicles not just how the movement formed, developed, and changed, but places an emphasis on how this dynamic sect has impacted America’s history.

It should be noted that while FitzGerald presents an excellent thumbnail history of American Evangelicals from the First Great Awakening (1740) onward, that her main emphasis is on the sect’s active involvement in American politics from the late twentieth century onward. She covers the period between the First Great Awakening until the end of the Second World War in just the first twenty-five percent of the book. The next twenty-five percent is mainly devoted to the figures of Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell, and covers the 1950s through the 1970s when those two men led the way into active Evangelical political involvement. A full fifty percent of the book covers the Evangelical leaders, groups, and movements that became an impactful political force in the decades between 1980 and the 2016 election.

While FitzGerald doesn’t devote a lot of space to the birth and development of Evangelicalism in its first two centuries, she nevertheless does an excellent job on covering the vital points of the story. She explains The First Great Awakening largely through a focus on the figures of Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield. Likewise, she animated the Second Great Awakening by concentrating on the life of Charles Finney. Throughout, FitzGerald builds the history of the movement through intense focus on its major figures.

FitzGerald hits all of the important points in the shaping of Evangelism. Slavery split the Northern and Southern Evangelicals, and transformed them away from the original radicalism of the movement. Dispensationalism was introduced from the British Plymouth Brethren, a radical new eschatology that would come to define American Evangelicals. Most importantly, the Evangelicals frantic reaction against the introduction of the Higher Criticism (a scholarly approach to reading and evaluating the Bible developed in German Universities) into American Divinity schools and churches would shape the development of the movement. From their reaction against the Higher Criticism came Evangelicals foundational doctrines of Biblical inerrancy and a literal interpretation of the Bible. And this set up the major Fundamentalist verse Modernist battles that defined the movement up through the first half of the twentieth century.

All this history is fascinating, but it is just prologue to the rest of the book, which concentrates on how Evangelicals have sought to shape and control American politics and culture since World War Two. Believing themselves to be the Elect — the only keepers of the True Faith, they set out to reclaim America as a Christian Nation. From Billy Graham becoming personal pastor to presidents, Jerry Falwell creating the Moral Majority (the ur-Religious Right political group), Francis Schaeffer’s introducing abortion as the overwhelming religious right cultural issue, to Pat Robertson’s campaign for president, R.J. Rushdoony’s frighteningly fringe Christian Reconstructionism, Ralph Reed and the Christian Coalition, James Dobson and his Family Research Council — the evolution of Evangelical political activity and influence are traced in meticulous and fascinating detail.

FitzGerald book is a first rate history of a movement that is a critical player in American politics and the culture wars that have defined it for decades. It is well written, meticulously researched, and easily accessible. Anyone interested in American politics and culture should consider it mandatory reading.

[Kimba Tichenor · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, Frances FitzGerald offers a history of white evangelicalism from the first Great Awakening in the 1730s (Jonathan Edwards) until the present. However the vast majority of the book focuses on evangelicalism in the 20th century and the emergence of the religious right; the first two centuries of evangelical politics and theology encompass only the first 142 pages of this 746-page tome.

Because the author's primary interest is the rise of Christian political conservatism in the twentieth century, more progressive strains of evangelicalism in the nineteenth and twentieth century often receive only minimal attention. For example, FitzGerald does not cover Charles Grandison Finney's harsh criticism of predatory capitalism during the Second Great Awakening. Similarly, for the 20th century, FitzGerald only makes brief reference to the Chicago Evangelical Declaration of Social Concern in 1973 and to evangelicals who supported environmental protection and religious tolerance for all faiths. That said, in contradistinction to much of mainstream media, FitzGerald is careful not to present conservative evangelicals as a singular entity with a common set of beliefs. Instead, the author highlights the multiple internal theological and political debates that have divided conservative evangelicals over the course of the twentieth century. These differences, rather than external challenges, have often undermined the efforts of white evangelical leaders to exercise influence on the American political stage for extended periods of time. To her credit, the author avoids sensationalism in detailing these theological differences. But ultimately, what she has written is not a history of evangelicalism but a magisterial history of white Christian political conservatism since the 1940s, as she chose to omit a wide-ranging cast of individuals and groups that self-identify as evangelicals, including African-American, Latino, and Asian evangelicals as well as liberal and conservative Christians who over the years have expressed strong objections to the political agenda of the religious right. This omission results in an incomplete, and at times stereotypical, representation of the discursive world of Christian evangelicalism.

[Sher · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a pleasure to read and discuss this book with three reformed Evangelicals, a current Evangelical, and myself who probably identifies as a pseudo -Christian ? Buddhist. Without a doubt this is the best book I have read in 2017, because it answered so many questions I had about what defines Evangelicalism, where did it come from, and how has Evangelicalism shaped American politics. All the main figures from the 18th to the 21st century are covered. And each movement and how it influenced politics is covered. The Christian Right and the Tea Party are covered in detail as is Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and many others. A distinction is made between fundamentalist, conservative, and progressive Evangelicals. All the epilog covers - from a religious standpoint, just who voted for Donald Trump and why. And, if you really want to understand the history of the Right and American politics- this is the book. It took us three months to read at one chapter per week. The other readers felt Fitzgerald focused too heavily of the "whackos" in the Evangelical movement and not enough on those who did reasonable, good things. But, if you are progressive, I assume that would be your view. Intense and dense and highly recommended, if you are interested in this topic and willing to commit to the read.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

No time for a good review. Just to say it is an excellent and comprehensive of the changing shape, and various strains, of evangelicalism in the United States from colonial days to the present. She is particularly thorough and clear about how the conservative right and fundamentalism took over evangelicalism for much of the twentieth century, and how gradually an older view of evangelicalism is re-emerging with a focus on social justice and ministering to the poor and the earth. Recommended.

[Leo Walsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Christian, I often wonder about the strange unChristian things I often observe from my more conservative fellow believers. THE EVANGELICALS by Frances Fitzgerald is a fabulous book, providing a window into their worldview. And she takes the LOOOOOOOOONG view, tracing the movement back to the 17th century through the regional, southern movement that blossomed in the 1960's as a reaction to the "Long Sixties" and the challenges they to traditional, rural patriarchal society, like minority rights, gay rights, and women controlling their bodies.

I appreciated the depth of Fitzgerald's coverage. She doesn't just paint Christian Conservatives at the height of their power, from Regan through W. Bush, as the inflexible and angry idealogues they often appear to the rest of us sans context. Instead, she shows their beliefs to be a by-product of historical forces. Because before and during that time, the south was moving from a rural, agrarian culture to an urban, industrial one. And religion was a connection to stability, to the past. And conservative pastors like Jerry Falwell found flocks confused by the rapid changes that happened around mid-century, from Brown v. Board to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to the sexual revolution and women's liberation. All seemed at odds with southern culture. And their religion a fortress against this change.

She ends the book examining the New Evangelicals, a movement typified by Rick Warren (of THE PURPOSE-DRIVEN LIFE fame). This new breed of evangelical expands the meaning of "right to life" from the fundamentalist notion of focusing on ending abortion to acknowledging that a Christian society would treat the poor and our environment with care. And thus, they advocate for progressive-sounding policies like welfare, a living wage, medical coverage for all, etc.

A well-written book covering an interesting topic quite relevant to contemporary American culture, Four-stars. A National Book Award finalist.

[Mehrsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so well done. It's a thoughtful, precise, and careful history of the evangelical movement. I was trying to decipher the author's own views the entire time and could never get a good handle on it--a mark of an excellent history.

As to the content, it's just so fascinating to follow the arc of the evangelical right and wonder about what's coming next. I hope there is more of a move toward causes (like poverty and justice) and not just a myopic fixation on abortion and gay marriage. I've never understood how a Christian community would think that those are the two more important issues--having read the New Testament. Anyway, I am much closer to understanding this movement now.

[Mary Ronan Drew · Rating 1 out of 5]

American Evangelicals. The Great Awakening, tent revivals, Holy Rollers, slave preachers, millennialists, Southern Baptists, Pentecostals. Dwight Moody, Oral Roberts, Father Divine, Aimee Semple McPherson, Bob Jones, Billy Graham, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Billy Sunday, Peter Marshall, Sweet Daddy Grace. Heck, even George Whitefield was a thought-provoking guy. What a lively book this should be.

Well, of course I got my evangelicals confused with my evangelists to start with, but still, there should be plenty to work with in the history of conservative preachers, fundamentalism, and evangelicals in this country. And indeed, they are all mentioned in Frances Fitzgerald's history. Along with many of those mentioned above, there are Jonathan Edwards, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Rick Warren, James Dobson. I heard Robert Schuller preach at the Chrystal Cathedral years ago and I thought I would read the story of him and his church.

Unfortunately, I only made it to page 11 of this 740-page book. I spent another hour and a half looking up and reading about some people and places and movements I was interested in and I found myself asking why this author should have wasted so much time writing this book. Deeply researched, widely ranging, filled with dates and numbers and details, the tome reads like the US Social Security Act.

It is seldom a good idea to write a book about a person or subject that you hold in great disdain unless you are prepared to be actively disdainful, sarcastic, mocking, witty. And clearly Fitzgerald holds fundamentalists and evangelicals, protestants, Christians, indeed believers of any sort in disdain. But she presents this history as if she were simply giving the reader the true and balanced story, no opinions here, straightforward narrative, nothing jaundiced or hostile. Just the facts.

Hoping for a balanced discussion nowadays of these admittedly controversial people and religious movements, I was distressed to find this well-researched book (71 pages of end notes) by a respected historian so entirely negative towards its subject. Everything she discusses she approaches unfavorably. It's as if no one ever found his life changed by a tent revival, no one was consoled by Billy Graham's words, no one got a good education at Bob Jones University.

As with seemingly every new book I read lately, the author ends warning of the dangers of the election of Donald Trump.

[Michael Perkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was familiar with the bulk of what is covered in this new book. But I give it props for being a thoroughly researched, balanced treatment of the subject. The writing is also quite fluid for a subject that could easily be a textbook instead.

Back in the 70's, I recall author and evangelist Francis Schaeffer being popular in Christian circles at colleges. (I was surprised the author did not talk about his popular early works such as "Escape from Reason"). What I hadn't realized until recent years is that Schaeffer went on to join the Moral Majority in its political program. His son, Franky (or Frank) was supposed to be his successor, but rebelled. He has written a gently chiding memoir of his parents (linked below) with a sensationalist title.

What has also come out is that Francis Schaeffer was something of pseudo-intellectual who was not nearly as well-versed in the historical figures and movements he included in his speeches. The Schaeffers had a kind of commune in Switzerland, called L'Abri, where young people, in particular, were welcome to come talk about Christianity and western civilization, although substantial discussion of science seemed to be missing. But some who abided there reported that he got his knowledge from magazines, including about Existentialism from reading a cover story in Time Magazine, and that no one actually saw him read a book other than the Bible.

What I had not realized was the pervasive influence Francis Schaeffer had on political thinkers of the Right outside church circles.

The book by his son....

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9...

[Cathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very informative about the history of evangelicals. I was a young child in the 70s-80s and heard the names mentioned, so it was nice to get an overview of what they were doing as a movement. It was an interesting book and it was hard to stop reading.

[Marks54 · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are some authors for whom I will move their new works to the top of my queue because I know it will be worth it. Margaret Atwood comes to mind. Frances FitzGerald wrote a wonderful book in 1972 on the Vietnam War - Fire in the Lake. When I heard that she had written a book on US Evangelicals, I was intrigued and after some due diligence decided to jump in.

The Evangelicals is a high quality of Evangelical and related enthusiastic religious movements in US history. It reads like a fine history work written by someone who is also a skilled writer and story teller. The book embraces the varied names and labels applied to Evangelical groups and provides a detailed history back to Jonathan Edwards and the First Great Awakening. This is a complex story and FitzGerald does a good jobs at tracing the ins and outs of how this side of US Protestantism developed through it various stages past watersheds like the Civil War and Reconstruction and up to the 20th nad 21st centuries. If you get confused about who is an Evangelical and who is not, what a Pentacostal is and how they compare with other groups, what a fundamentalist is, or where various small churches and sects came from, then this is the book for you. FitzGerald has done her homework - although even with her clear writing it is hard to keep all the actors straight.

The heart of the story concerns the emergence of the Christian Right as a main player in US politics from the 1960s and 1970s up through the Bush 43 presidency and Obama. A strong point of the book is in its profiles of the different televangelists who drove this political action and become omnipresent on television in their shows and in coverage of their scandals. The book is strong in clarifying how the religious politics works and how alliances were made and unmade. The book is also strong in discussing the ebb and flow of these movements and the thoroughly perplexing role of the Evangelicals in the 2016 election and in the Trump administration. The book is not primarily about Trump, however, and is not merely another volume of post-election Trump anthropology.

I will confess that my background has not involved much contact with these sorts of churches or worshippers. Indeed, the prospect of a high quality and thorough intellectual examination of a set of actors who are by intent not pursuing intellectual approaches to Christianity struck me as a daunting challenge for the author. I approached the book as an outsider struggling to keep an open mind. That appears to be the author’s perspective as well in that I do not see her pursuing a pro or anti evangelical agenda or nursing preconceptions about these churches or their pastors. Fitzgerald is also excellent in covering the institutional structure of these churches and their seminaries and the political and bureaucratic strategies that different actors, such as Billy Graham, employed to attain positions of influence in the broader US society. The book combines the story of these churches as a religious history with the story of how evangelicals came to have positions of influence in American politics and especially in the “culture wars” since the 1990s.

This is a long book and quite detailed. It reads easily, however, and goes quickly for a long volume on social and religious history. It was very enjoyable.

[Jared Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half is a really great book, the second half bogs down. This is not so much due to Fitzgerald's writing, however, as it is to the historical narrative shift of evangelicalism as revivalistic and culturally responsive movement to evangelicalism as political reactionary and morally compromised movement. The second half history is largely about the machinations of the Republican Party from 1970's onward, which for a book written about "The Evangelicals," tells you what you ought to know about the tribe.

Beginning to end, however, the book is meticulously researched and nearly exhaustive in details. Could have used a better editor, however, not simply to pare down the length, but also to catch recurring errors -- eg. 1) repeatedly referring to the premillennialist belief in "The Tribulations," when nearly all spokespeople call it "The Tribulation" singular; 2) constantly re-introducing figures, like referring to Rick Warren as megachurch pastor and bestelling author of The Purpose-Driven Life numerous times within a few pages (You already told us who he was!); and 3) simple textual errors like typos that I'm sure the sheer bulk created more opportunity for. At one point Gregory Boyd is referred to as "Gerald Boyd" within a page of his name being listed correctly. Sloppy.

All in all, a pretty good book, if you've got the stuff to slog through it. First half is better. Pack 8 lunches to get through the whole thing.

[Anna]

Review forthcoming in Publishers Weekly. This title was both painful and heartening to read in this historical moment as the bulk of its 700+ pages focus on the twentieth century and evangelical conservatism and fundamentalism ... strains of Christianity that have been an abiding political force in our recent history. Painful because many of the fears and anxieties expressed by the white Protestants that FitzGerald focuses on were made manifest in the 2016 presidential election; heartening because this work reminds us that many of the political struggles that have defined this election cycle stretch back into the 19th century if not earlier. We have historical examples for addressing and containing white Christian America's ability to harm itself and others. Another hopeful aspect of this work is the potential for evangelical Christian America to turn their energy and organization towards addressing the most pressing issues of our time: care for the environment, poverty, racism, and other social justice concerns. The Evangelical left and even many conservatives share an interest in these issues and could be key comrades in the struggle to come.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have yet to read a Simon and Schuster book with as many grammatical errors as there are in Evangelicals. As other reviewers pointed out, it seems that the book's release was rushed after Trump's 2016 victory. At over 600 pages, this book could have easily been cut down by half. Although Alec Ryrie's latest book Protestants focuses more on the global history of Protestantism, the chapters on the US include the same information as provided in Evangelicals, and are far more concise and accessible.

[Jeffrey (Akiva) Savett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent look into one of America’s largest socio-religious groups. Fitzgerald does a wonderful job of reporting BOTH without an axe to grind AND with her critical faculties in evidence. Her goal is to describe and contextualize. In doing so, the book locates the origins of many trends in Evangelical Christianity in the jeremiads and preaching of the late 18th and 19th century. For the modern reader, the first few chapters, describing these charismatic preachers like Cotton and Increase Mather and Jonathan Edwards can be a BIT slow going. I, however, found them fascinating as their warnings and rhetorical zeal are so aptly mirrored in our current discourse. Strangely, reading these preachers with whom I so devoutly disagree made me long for a time when our public dialogue was so sophisticated and serious. When there were real things at stake and respect was paid to who could raise those stakes most eloquently.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fundamentalist churches offered shelter from modernist ideas and “worldliness,” but fundamentalists, unlike Amish farmers, were not separatists who simply wanted to preserve their own ways, but the Lord’s army contending for the “the faith once delivered.” They were, as they saw it, the saving remnant and the rightful heirs to American civilization.

Good history of the development of evangelicalism in American through mid-twentieth century, then shifts to the politics of modern evangelical leaders. That, after all, is what FitzGerald promised to deliver. First half draws heavily from the works of George M. Marsden. Readers might save time by reading him.

George Marsden joked that a fundamentalist is an evangelical who is mad about something.

Pay attention to the different labels. (Helpful glossary accompanies.) As the tale approaches current times, FitzGerald’s veneer of objectivity grows thin: not blatantly partial, but subtle word choice and sly inuendo betrays her bias. The dictum that one shouldn’t accept anything any politicians says writes about his or her opponents applies here.

The fundamentalists had lost, but the winners had been the inclusivist conservatives, and they represented those many in the pews who paid no attention to the doctrinal disputes of their leadership.

It’s easier to quote voting polls than delve into subtleties of theology, but readers seeking insight rather than details may feel cheated. Listing who attended what meeting where, and who wrote what to whom, and how voting percentages changed from election to election is largely irrelevant. And boring.

The Christian right was an equally forceful reaction, not against liberal theology, but rather against the social revolution of the 1960s. Its dominant theme was nostalgia for some previous time in history—some quasi-mythological past—in which America was a (white) Christian nation.

[Joelle Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whew. That was a methodical, layered, and long march through time. However, it was worth it. It skipped the scandals of the SBC, focusing more on the overall agenda and the ERLC as opposed to men like Paige Patterson. It also didn't mention the sexual accusations that Bill Hybels is under, or go into celebrity pastors like Mark Driscoll.

I appreciated the nuances it brought to the fundamentalist discussion. Today, when we hear that word, we picture, skirts, suits, anti science, anti masks, shouting, crude, homophobic, racist, and tent revivals. Fundamentalism wasn't, originally, such a perjorative. There is a lot to be said for the risks of higher biblical criticism.

Jesus and John Wayne tended to paint the SBC with a broad brush of racism and sexual misconduct; while not excusing any of the trauma and crimes that individuals in the SBC have visited upon their victims, it was refreshing to see that the SBC had been a force for some good. (SN: I am not and have not ever been Baptist nor Baptist affiliated.) Is racism still an issue? So much yes. Are sexual crimes, and their perpetrators, covered up and excused? So much yes. Are victims blacklisted and further traumatized? So much yes.

But with an organization of 16.3 million people, it stands to reason that there are truly faithful and righteous individuals within there who are living their lives as the Bible commands. And this book highlighted some of those who did.

It also highlighted those who did not - the ones who sought power. There were others who sought power who were not in the SBC...but power is an elixir Christians seem doomed to find addictive. Falwell sought power relentlessly. Graham sought power, and it was his undoing. Franklin Graham has spent his entire life chasing the power that his father lost. For that he had to sell his soul to Donald Trump.

[Nathan Marone]

As an evangelical, this book felt like reading a Rorschach Test. Born in 1980 and been a Christian since 1996, I saw bits of myself, bits of my home church, bits of my family, and sights I didn't recognize at all. FitzGerald has written a massive and impressive book, one that will stay with me for a long time.

Roughly the first half of the book concerns itself with the longer history of Evangelicalism (Wesley, Whitfield, etc) and then gradually focuses in on American forms of Christianity related to fundamentalism. The second half of the book mostly follows the "Christian Right" in its various forms, giving close attention to American evangelicalism's loudest public voices engaged in national politics. FitzGerald's book is an attempt to understand the political movements within evangelicalism. In that respect, its doubtful that you'll find a better, more throughly researched book to consult.

The book was difficult for me in two ways. First, it covers a number of things that were happening within evangelicalism while I was a young Christian that I was not aware of at the time and I cannot figure out how to connect them to my own church experience. This isn't a critique of FitzGerald's work or research. The struggle is on my end, trying to figure out how to bring these elements to bear on what I have known of evangelicalism. Second, because FitzGerald's book, especially in its second half, is limited to understanding evangelicalism as a political movement, there are a lot of things that are missing; megachurches, the suburbs, the infusion of CEO/business management strategies in the church, youth group movements, the emergent church, theology and scholarship, and a host of other important, overlapping factors for understanding modern evangelicalism. Again, this isn't a critique of FitzGerald's work. The book, already over 600 pages, can't contain everything. But I do think if you limit yourself to understanding evangelicalism just through the political prism, you will miss out on a number of fascinating and perhaps more worthwhile elements of the movement.

Excellent book.

[John David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Embarking on a book like this can be emotionally enervating, even if one’s opinion isn’t well-formed enough to either agree or disagree with the author’s central thesis. Over the last couple of generations, American evangelicalism has become so intertwined with political conservatism that the history of one is closely connected with the history of the other. You can’t be sure the author doesn’t have an axe to grind, or perhaps worse yet, a hagiography to craft. Frances Fitzgerald, though, has gained a reputation as a well-respected journalist-historian whose “Fire in the Lake,” on the subject of the Vietnam War, won her both a Pulitzer Prize and a Bancroft Prize upon its 1972 publication.

One cannot accuse Fitzgerald of lacking historical reach. Her narrative begins firmly in the 18th century during the first Great Awakening. The 630 pages are not evenly divided, however. By page 95, she is already in the 20th century discussing the differences between fundamentalists and modernists and by page 169, she has arrived at the early career of Billy Graham. So while the book does acknowledge the historical roots of evangelicalism, it by and large speaks to 20th century evangelicalism and the figures within it. Some of the names that she discusses don’t fall into the decades where evangelicalism was especially politically influential, like before 1925 when the Scopes Trial brought William Jennings Bryan back into the public light to take up the mantle of Biblical literalism. Consequently, they get almost no contemporary attention; among them are J. Frank Norris, William B. Riley, and J. Gresham Machen.

I was especially grateful for Fitzgerald’s thoughtful, generous inclusions of two names that barely register in the culturally secular collective memory of our country: Francis Schaeffer and the truly fascinating character of R. J. Rushdoony. Seriously, if you are unfamiliar with either Rushdoony’s name or influence, he is someone to be explored beyond the limits of what Fitzgerald provides here. He was a bizarrely thoughtful and soft-spoken man, but one whose idea of a perfect society would have made the treatment of women in “The Handmaid’s Tale” look like radical feminism.

But it’s hard to argue with a man like Rushdoony, who literally believed that U.S. law should be based on Mosaic penal codes (no, that’s not a joke). You know he’s sincere, but it’s just that he comes from another time, another place. However, as conservative Protestant Christianity becomes more and more popular, you start to sense the rise of people joining the movement whose sincerity should be thoroughly examined. You can almost feel Fitzgerald’s blood pressure rising as she recounts biographies of increasingly conspicuous grafters and con men, from Jerry Falwell to Pat Robertson to Jimmy Swaggart and James Bakker, whose oleaginous behavior did little more than line their own self-serving pockets. Upon Falwell’s death, Christopher Hitchens couldn’t have been more right than to say, “If they would have given him an enema, you could have buried him in a matchbox.”

One interesting thing about historical movements that seem to occur and reoccur is that only with historical retrospection do they seem to have any degree of subtlety or complexity. In our own time, the slow evangelical creep that took over much of American conservatism seemed inevitable and unquestionable. It is only with a larger historical lens that one can begin to get a grasp of the characteristics that define evangelicalism as a whole in all of its reincarnations (i.e., the three Great Awakenings). One of the definite weak points of this book is that, at least since the rise appearance of Falwell’s Moral Majority in the 1970s, Fitzgerald assumes the endpoints of American conservatism and evangelicalism to be coterminous, but that’s far from the case.

Consistent research actually shows that the average evangelical is not the Supreme Court-protesting, soldier funeral-picketing Westboro Baptist Church member that you might envision from reading this book. By and large, they do tend to vote Republican, but they don’t self-identify as activists in any greater proportion than any other religious demographic group. Another group Fitzgerald doesn’t mention is the Emerging Church Movement, participants of which are not easily theologically classified, but tend to deemphasize formal theology in favor of living a generally moral life and the recognition and integration of postmodern elements, like the feeling of spiritual anomie so common in Westernized technocracies.

While Fitzgerald admits to a kind of evangelical resurgence during the presidency of George W. Bush, she thinks it sort of lost its way in the light of the egregious failures that defined his second administration – the continued failure of Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, and the 2009 recession. But it’s far from finished; it’s just gone into one of its intermittent dormant, regrouping phases, awaiting to vocally support a Supreme Court decision to illegalize abortion or a pagan president who thinks that “Corinthians Two” is a kind of alternative leather. The book isn’t without significant oversights – the African-American evangelical experience and the Protestant religious coalitions that helped bring about the civil rights reforms of the 1960s are almost wholly elided, for example – but all in all, it’s probably one of the fairest, reliable, and thorough accounts you’ll likely find written for a broad readership.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first two thirds of this book were fascinating and compelling. Great background for understanding how the white American Protestant church got to where we are today. Should be required reading for people who call themselves evangelicals.

The last third was spent on the on the last 30 years, and it felt like the narrative got too dragged down in the nitty gritty details of political votes instead of the story the rest of the book told. Still worthwhile, but less useful I think than the first part.

[Matthew Manchester · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brutally honest. You won't see evangelism the same after reading this.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Reviewer's Note: I just wrote a more in depth review of this book on my weekly book blog. If you like this review and would like to read more, click on the following link: https://tobereadnow.blogspot.com/2017... )

If you ask your average American what an Evangelical is, they will probably identify them as a Christian, but will probably also mention negatives terms such as bigot and homophobe. This is a sad fact that has its roots in the politics of the Christian Right during the 2000s, but it ignores the extraordinary impact evangelical Christianity has had on the history of the country. This book examines that history and reminds us of how evangelistic Christianity has made its mark on the individualistic character of America.

Starting with the First Great Awakening and running through to the recent election of Donald Trump, Ms. Fitzgerald traces the evolution of evangelical Christianity through all of its tumultuous ups and downs. Throughout it all she shows how this movement has made its mark on American history. Several charitable societies in the 19th century were started by evangelical Christians. However, she does not ignore the bad history either. Southern evangelical Christians used their faith to justify slavery and then, after the Civil War, justify Jim Crow laws. Ms. Fitzgerald also gives details about the most important figures in the history of the movement, from Jonathan Edwards through Charles Finney and Billy Graham to Jerry Falwell, James Dobson and Rick Warren.

What most readers will be interested in though is the rise and the decline of the Christian Right starting in the late 1970s. Indeed, half of this book covers that part of the tale alone. It is very interesting indeed as it shows how the evangelical movement shifted its focus away from doctrinal issues within the movement (the inerrancy of the Bible, the virgin birth, the crucifixion, etc.) to political issues and elections. She spends an especially long time telling the story of the Christian Right during the George W. Bush administration and the backlash their support and identification with President Bush caused.

As fascinating as this book is, there are some problems with it that make it difficult to enjoy. The first is the length of the chapters and the lack of organization within each chapter. At the beginning, the chapters are relatively manageable with subheadings throughout. However, as the book gets closer to the present, the chapters get longer and the subheadings are few and far between. Ms. Fitzgerald's chapter on the George W. Bush years was over 100 pages long and is so detailed that I felt like her editor should have told her to pare it down to the most essential tales. Also, there are a ton of missing the's and a's throughout the book, especially after the first few chapters. In fact, by the end of the book, there is hardly a page that goes by that isn't missing an important the or a. Both of seem to suggest that this book start of well, but after the election of Donald Trump was rushed to publication. This book could have benefited from more time to edit and pare down some of the bloat. One other problem this book has in the beginning is that, before the 197s, Ms. Fitzgerald uses theological terms to note the controversies of the age. For non-christians and even some lay Christians, it may be difficult to figure out what she is talking about. However, there is a glossary in the back and I would recommend people use it.

As the movement loses its influence on politics and many of its members vote for Donald Trump, the book ends with evangelical Christians in a tough spot. Church attendance and baptism numbers are down and few millennials identify themselves as Christians. Whatsmore, many millennials identify evangelicalism with Republican politics, bigotry and homophobia. As an evangelical myself, this breaks my heart. Perhaps by reading books on our history we can humbly admit our mistakes and rededicate ourselves to living out the teachings of our Lord, Jesus Christ, in our daily lives.

[Ethan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A history of the Evangelical movement perhaps better subtitled, "The Story of Why Evangelicals Vote the Way They Do," aka the only reason secularists tend to care about Evangelical Christianity.

The author is well researched and does about as well as a person can in attempting to maintain a secular disinterest but communicate about the subject. She spends very little time in the early period of the movement, focusing mostly on the divides manifest in the great awakenings leading to the fundamentalist / modernist schism fully complete by the 1920s.

The author spends a bit more time discussing all the streams that lead to the Religious Right coalition of the 1970s and onward; the majority of the book, provided in extreme detail, focuses on that Religious Right coalition in its various iterations and the attempts of various Evangelicals to shape political movements and policy over the past 40 years. The author concludes by establishing her purpose: to show that the Evangelicals of today are really no different from the fundamentalists of yore, manifesting the same concerns, and still as alien as ever.

I'm not sure if we needed a book describing the political endeavors of the Evangelicals and its origins, considering that the Evangelicals would be offended by their portrayal and the secularist posture of the author, and I'm not quite sure many secularists are that particularly interested in what motivates Evangelicals...considering, as the author points out well, that the secularists tend to think Evangelicalism has died out as a political force until it arises again and influences elections, and is still summarily otherized or ignored. Nevertheless, we have it, and so:

...for secularists: the book does well to show that you can ignore conservative Christianity, you can summarily dismiss it, you can fear it or otherize it or in whatever various ways consider it a spent force going into decline, and yet it continues to exist and exerts continual influence.

...for conservative Christians: the work gives an opportunity to see how the political work over the past few decades has been managed and how it looks to secularists. Unfortunately it's not a very pretty picture...and it has not helped advance the purposes of God in Christ in His Kingdom.

If you're looking for an actual history of Evangelicalism you're going to have to seek out Noll or others like him. You won't find it here. But if you're looking for all the politics, here it is.

**--galley received as part of an early review program

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Evangelicals is an intense work, extensively researched and thoroughly footnoted. FitzGerald covers the movement’s growth from the Great Awakenings to our current administration. How we arrived at this point in American politics was my motivation for reading. I am guilty of applying my own politically and spiritually progressive bias to my interpretation. This study underscored my opinions about the battles over inerrancy of the Bible, the tendency for the most vocal fundamentalist right wing religious to be somewhat insular, driven by the lure of power (and money) in political influence, and obsession with the “below the belt” issues at the cost of other social justice causes. I could expound upon how much history FitzGerald delves into, but would encourage you to read for yourself. It is a LOT of work, but well worth the effort.

I would have loved MORE of her last chapter and epilogue. In wrapping up the last decade or so, we see a massive shift in evangelicals and an obvious split. The far right may be in the minority but remain the loudest voice, as the progressive evangelicals distance themselves from the political realm and focus more on broader applications of the scriptures. They finally move into the questions of climate control, immigration, even racial and sexual discrimination. The numbers on both ends of the evangelical spectrum are declining for a variety of reasons. The most obvious being demographics of age and increased secularism. How Trump came to be elected seems now to have more to do with a nostalgia for a past era, irrational fears of losing economic power and political control that is defined by white, patriarchal privilege. The connection still exists with those attitudes being championed by the Tea Party, many of whom are the older, wealthier generation but also conservative evangelicals.

[Joel Wentz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an extremely well-researched biography of the evangelical movement in America. Fitzgerald clearly did her homework, and though many in a post-Trump-election world would have taken this opportunity to skewer such a cultural movement, I was quite impressed with her balanced perspective. She manages to capture the stories controversial figures (Falwell, Robertson, Dobson, and the like) including all their gaffes, foibles, and idiosyncrasies, while also seeking to understand them - their motives and dreams. It's pretty remarkable reading, and even as someone who grew up mired in the movement she is describing, I learned quite a bit.

While the book is insightful throughout, the chapters that cover the 80s, 90s and early 2000s get mired in the details of politics. Obviously the stories of the Moral Majority, Christian Coalition and Focus on the Family simply cannot be avoided in a book about American Evangelicalism, but for this reader, those particular chapters got bogged down by the amount of political detail. A little trimming, and more discussion of the more centrist and left-leaning organizations within Evangelicalism would have been helpful.

All that being said, this book is timely, and a wonderful addition to the shelf of any American history buff. If, like me, you grew up "Evangelical," this account provides much-needed perspective on the values of the movement. If you have no personal experience with the Evangelical church, then this will likely help you understand how the movement has existed, and the forces that have shaped it into what it is today. Highly recommended.