Religion and the American Revolution: An Imperial History

by Katherine Carté

For most of the eighteenth century, British protestantism was driven neither by the primacy of denominations nor by fundamental discord between them. Instead, it thrived as part of a complex transatlantic system that bound religious institutions to imperial politics. As Katherine Carte argues, British imperial protestantism proved remarkably effective in advancing both the interests of empire and the cause of religion until the war for American independence disrupted it. That Revolution forced a reassessment of the role of religion in public life on both sides of the Atlantic. Religious communities struggled to reorganize within and across new national borders. Religious leaders recalibrated their relationships to government. If these shifts were more pronounced in the United States than in Britain, the loss of a shared system nonetheless mattered to both nations.

Sweeping and explicitly transatlantic, Religion and the American Revolution demonstrates that if religion helped set the terms through which Anglo-Americans encountered the imperial crisis and the violence of war, it likewise set the terms through which both nations could imagine the possibilities of a new world.

Genres: History, American History, Religion, American, American Revolution, Nonfiction, Politics

416 pages, Hardcover

First published June 14, 2021

About the author

Katherine Carté (who previously published as Katherine Carté Engel) is a professor of history at Southern Methodist University.

Reviews

[Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book for scholars and specialists in the field, more so than for general readers with an interest in early American history. I suppose I fall somewhere in between: I am not a historian, but I also read more books about this stuff than most folks, probably.

I interviewed the author for my podcast: http://historyasithappens.radio.washi...

[T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall a strong book. I think she overstates how abruptly/entirely the scaffolding falls. It's more like a stepping stone in Anglo-American protestant hegemony that continues through the nineteenth century. Very helpful 30k foot view though.

[Thomas Mackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great. Religion as a key element in imperial networking. Carte demonstrates how America would leave established Church practices and creat a free market for religion.

[Bob Lundquist · Rating 5 out of 5]

For most people, the American Revolution was when Britain’s mainland American colonies seceded from the Union. A new country was formed, yadda, yadda, yadda – that was so long ago what does it matter? However, for those that actually study the revolution, it was at least as bad as the Civil War barely eighty years later. It was brother against brother and other relationships bitterly torn apart.

This book explains how it also tore co-religionists apart despite a common belief in faith.
In Great Britain, Anglicans ran the country. Colonies formed in America because people did not share Anglican beliefs and wanted to form their own religious communities. Thus, the Pilgrims, the Puritans, Congregationalists, Baptists, etc. As the colonies grew, they had more meaningful relations with the mother country which included the spread of Anglicanism. All these were protestant denominations and as such, though differences in worship existed, they became subsumed in a protestant network where differences were tolerated and became the fabric of religious discourse for the entire British Empire. But religious affiliation also meant some degree of civic and governmental obedience. The king of England was at the head of both the Anglican church (and, by association, the other protestants) and the ruler of the empire.

This book explains how religious ties within the empire, and especially with America were torn apart and changed during and after the revolution. It is well-written, even erudite, and heavily foot-noted – not a book for the casual reader. One must be really into history to fully understand what is going on here. The bottom line of the book is that religion in the English-speaking world was re-formed during this period which affects us today. It is the start of the so-called separation of church and state that also impacts freedom of speech; no wonder those concepts are in a single amendment to the Constitution. If one wants to read this book, one must be almost an expert in the history of the revolution and surrounding timeframes.