Exploring the dynamic interplay between religion and revolution in the founding eraReligion lies at the heart of how many Americans understand the birth of their nation, giving rise to passionate calls for national unity and principled struggles for religious freedom. For the first time in thirty years, scholars of the founding era have joined together to reassess this central topic for our present moment. From fast-day proclamations to wartime crises of conscience...

Tracing the material and intellectual development of one of the nation’s leading law schoolsOver two centuries, UVA Law evolved from a regional, segregated law school into a nationally recognized leader in legal education. As this collection highlights, its changing curriculum—always in conversation with broader historical, cultural, and social forces—proved crucial to this profound transformation. Initially shaped by white Southern perspectives on race, gender, an...

American Examples: New Conversations about Religion, Volume Three, is the third in a series of annual anthologies produced by the American Examples workshop hosted by the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama. In the latest volume from this innovative academic project, ten topically and methodologically diverse scholars vividly reimagine the meaning and applications of American religious history. These ten chapters use case studies from America, broadly conc...

**An essential history of African American women’s pursuit of political power—and how it transformed America“Elegant and expansive.” —New York TimesWinner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for HistoryNamed a Best Book of the Year by Ms. • Time • Foreign Affairs • Smithsonian**In Vanguard, acclaimed historian Martha S. Jones offers a new history of African American women’s political lives in Ame...

**Winner of the 2014 National Book Critics Circle Award for General NonfictionShortlisted for the 2014 Cundill Prize in Historical Literature**From the revered historian, the long-awaited conclusion of the magisterial history of slavery and emancipation in Western culture that has been nearly fifty years in the making.David Brion Davis is one of the foremost historians of the twentieth century, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Bancroft Priz...

Viewing the Civil War as a major turning point in American religious thought, Mark A. Noll examines writings about slavery and race from Americans both white and black, northern and southern, and includes commentary from Protestants and Catholics in Europe and Canada. Though the Christians on all sides agreed that the Bible was authoritative, their interpretations of slavery in Scripture led to a full-blown theological crisis.

Before the Civil War, colonization schemes and black laws threatened to deport former slaves born in the United States. Birthright Citizens recovers the story of how African American activists remade national belonging through battles in legislatures, conventions, and courthouses. They faced formidable opposition, most notoriously from the US Supreme Court decision in Dred Scott. Still, Martha S. Jones explains, no single case defined their status. Former slaves studied law, secured allies...

This in-depth study examines the social structures and religious beliefs that helped shape Southern history from colonization to the twenty-first century.The history of race and religion in the American South is infused with tragedy, survival, resistance, and even transcendence. In Christianity and Race in the American South, Paul Harvey provides an enlightening narrative history that fundamentally transforms our understanding of American Christianity and r...

**"Penningroth's conclusions emerge from an epic research agenda.... Before the Movement presents an original and provocative account of how civil law was experienced by Black citizens and how their 'legal lives' changed over time . . . [an] ambitious, stimulating, and provocative book." —Eric Foner, New York Review of BooksWinner of the Beveridge Award, American Historical AssociationWinner of the Littleton-Griswold Prize, American Historical Association

Religious life in early America is often equated with the fire-and-brimstone Puritanism best embodied by the theology of Cotton Mather. Yet, by the nineteenth century, American theology had shifted dramatically away from the severe European traditions directly descended from the Protestant Reformation, of which Puritanism was in the United States the most influential. In its place arose a singularly American set of beliefs. In America's God, Mark Noll has written a biography of this new Am...

Pillars of the Republic is a pioneering study of common-school development in the years before the Civil War. Public acceptance of state school systems, Kaestle argues, was encouraged by the people's commitment to republican government, by their trust in Protestant values, and by the development of capitalism. The author also examines the opposition to the Founding Fathers' educational ideas and shows what effects these had on our school system.

A best-selling text thoroughly updated, including new chapters on the last 30 years"An excellent study that will help historians appreciate the importance of Christianity in the history of the United States and Canada." – The Journal of American History"Scholars and general readers alike will gain unique insights into the multifaceted character of Christianity in its New World environment. Nothing short of brilliant." – Harry S. Stout, Yale University"A new standard...