America's Book: The Rise and Decline of a Bible Civilization, 1794-1911

America's Book explores how the Bible shaped American national history, influenced by debates over slavery, non-Protestants, and the Civil War. It highlights the centrality of the Bible for influential religious figures, presidents, and civil rights campaigners, and how it became more fragmented in the more religiously plural period from Reconstruction to the early twentieth century.

Format: Hardback
Length: 848 pages
Publication date: 16 August 2022
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc

America's Book explores the profound influence of the Bible on American national history, while also shaping the way Scripture has been used throughout the nation's development. The book delves into the emergence of a distinctly Protestant Bible civilization in the early United States, which was subsequently divided by debates over slavery, contested by growing numbers of non-Protestant Americans (including Catholics, Jews, and agnostics), and torn apart by the Civil War. This comprehensive history of the Bible in America sheds light on the significant events and turning points that shaped the nation's engagement with Scripture.

One of the key aspects of the book is its examination of the impact of Tom Paine's anti-biblical tract, The Age of Reason (1794). Paine's work, which challenged the authority of the Bible, sparked a dramatic response and had a profound effect on American society. The book explains how innovations in printing by the American Bible Society played a crucial role in creating the nation's publishing industry and how Nat Turner's slave rebellion of 1831 and the bitter election of 1844 marked significant turning points in the nation's engagement with Scripture.

Furthermore, the book explores the role of presidents like Abraham Lincoln, notable American women like Harriet Beecher Stowe, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Frances Willard, dedicated campaigners for civil rights like Frederick Douglass and Francis Grimké, lesser-known figures like Black authors Maria Stewart and Harriet Jacobs, and a host of others of high estate and low. The book illustrates how the more religiously plural period from Reconstruction to the early twentieth century saw Scripture become a much more fragmented, though still significant, force in American society.

Overall, America's Book is a masterful work that provides a comprehensive and insightful exploration of the Bible's influence on American national history. It sheds light on the complex and multifaceted ways in which the Bible has shaped the nation's cultural, social, and political landscape, and serves as a valuable resource for scholars, students, and anyone interested in understanding the role of Scripture in American history.

Weight: 1g
Dimension: 242 x 165 x 63 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780197623466