One Nation Under God

"A deftly detailed history of Christianity's service to capitalism in the United States."

"Kruse tells a big and important story about the mingling of religion and politics since the 1930s."

"Fascinating."

"An important and convincing reminder that the roots of Christianity were cultivated well before the era of the religious right."

"An illuminating addition to the growing field of the history of American conservatism and capitalism, as well as a vibrant study of the way cultural influence works-one that will make it impossible to take for granted the small print on the back of a dollar bill ever again.... This is what's most interesting in the story Kruse is telling: the pattern of continuity and change that links our own time with those that came before."

"A fine new book. ... Kruse's thoughtful book illustrates a kind of life cycle of American religious politics: fervent social movements rise up, crest with presidential support, and then slip away, leaving behind rituals, rhetoric, rules, and reforms."

"An engaging and important book."

"A lucid narrative."

"Kruse's book is a deft elaboration on the irony of the corporate involvement in the Christian America promotion: Supporters, be they of good or ill will, converged on the idea that they were producing or reproducing a nation united 'under God.' Frustrated in their attempts to change the Constitution, they had to settle for the insertion of 'under God' in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. Yet, as the author makes clear, they were, ironically, producing a new and enduringly conflicted and polarized America."

"It sheds new light on our tortured past and our abiding predicament."

"One Nation Under God is an important book. We Christians and Americans need to understand our history.... Kruse offers us a potent reminder of where we have come from, and, perhaps more importantly, how far we still have to go."

"A thorough and fascinating treatment of a little known thread of US history."

"A new, meticulous, and vital historical account that should be read by anyone who still scratches their head over whether the Tea Party is a religious movement, or wonders how the idealized conception of America as a 'Christian nation' was constructed... Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand that uniquely American alliance between God and mammon."

"An engaging history of modern religious nationalism... briskly narrated and richly detailed"

"Kruse's book will be an important resource for anyone who wonders why so many fundamentalist figureheads—clergy and politicians alike—promote fiscal conservatism alongside social conservatism."

"The author lays out a new mega-subdivision in our sprawling religious history. The result exposes a class of pulpit vipers who infect an insecure quarter of the population and who can never shake the feeling they are not as believed in as they believe they should be."

"As entertaining as it is revealing. ... Kruse weaves a narrative that is quite funny, in an understated scholarly way."

"Kruse has crafted a tight argument and marshaled a mountain of evidence to support it. His writing is sharp and clear, and his telling eye for detail makes this an engaging story. Simply put, One Nation Under God is an excellent book."

"Fascinating, vividly drawn portraits."

"One Nation Under God comes as something of a revelation (pardon the expression). Kruse makes the case that whatever the relationship between faith and the state in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, that connection went through a profound transformation in the 1950s."