Red-Hot and Righteous: The Urban Religion of The Salvation Army

by Diane Winston

In this engrossing study of religion, urban life, and commercial culture, Diane Winston shows how a (self-styled "red-hot") militant Protestant mission established a beachhead in the modern city. When The Salvation Army, a British evangelical movement, landed in New York in 1880, local citizens called its eye-catching advertisements "vulgar" and dubbed its brass bands, female preachers, and overheated services "sensationalist." Yet a little more than a century later, this ragtag missionary movement had evolved into the nation's largest charitable fund-raiser--the very exemplar of America's most cherished values of social service and religious commitment. Winston illustrates how the Army borrowed the forms and idioms of popular entertainments, commercial emporiums, and master marketers to deliver its message. In contrast to histories that relegate religion to the sidelines of urban society, her book shows that Salvationists were at the center of debates about social services for the urban poor, the changing position of women, and the evolution of a consumer culture. She also describes Salvationist influence on contemporary life--from the public's post-World War I (and ongoing) love affair with the doughnut to the Salvationist young woman's career as a Hollywood icon to the institutionalization of religious ideals into nonsectarian social programs. Winston's vivid account of a street savvy religious mission transformed over the decades makes adroit use of performance theory and material culture studies to create an evocative portrait of a beloved yet little understood religious movement. Her book provides striking evidence that, counter to conventional wisdom, religion was among the seminal social forces that shaped modern, urban America--and, in the process, found new expression for its own ideals.

Genres: History

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Gerrit]

This book gave tremendous insight into the life of my great-grandmother, who was a Salvation Army slum worker in New York City at the beginning of the twentieth century and later rose to become a Captain. It also tells compellingly of the rise of the social gospel movement and the then-nascent science of marketing. Very well researched and written.

[Sara Strack]

For the final for one of my classes, I had to choose a movie to watch and read a book the professor paired with the movie. I chose Guys and Dolls, and because of that, I had to read this. This turned out to be much more interesting than I expected. I'm only supposed to write 750 words for the essay, comparing and contrasting how the movie portrayed religion (and in this case, the Salvation Army) but this book brought up so much that I want to compare and contrast within the movie. I think if you're curious about the Salvation Army and its history, especially within New York, this is a good read. I also think people would find this fascinating when paired with Guys and Dolls.

[Al Lock]

This is an ok history of the Salvation Army in the United States, primarily in NYC from 1880 to 1950. It is clearly done almost entirely from media stories and from the War Cry. The Kindle edition has none of the illustrations or photographs that appear in the print edition (in fact, each spot has a placeholder referring the reader to the print editions) which is simply a rip-off. The illustrations and photographs should have appeared.

Not recommended.

[nicole]

Strangely interesting...