Religion in Twentieth Century America

by Randall Balmer

Covering Protestant, Hindu, Jewish, New Age, Mormon, Buddhist, Roman Catholic, and many other faiths, Religion in Twentieth Century America is a dynamic look at religion in America through two World Wars, vast industrialization, the civil rights movement, and massive immigration. Included are
crucial moments, such
* The appointment of Louis Brandeis, a Jew, to the U.S. Supreme Court
* The contentious court trial of John T. Scopes, which dramatized the debate over Darwinism
* The extraordinary rise of evangelist Billy Graham at mid-century
* The Presbyterian church's decision to ordain women
*The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
*The federal government's decision to attack the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.
With a chronology, index, and suggestions for further reading following, these momentous events and others are tied together in an absorbing narrative in Religion in Twentieth Century America , providing an illuminating guide to the complex issues of 21st-century religion.

144 pages, Hardcover

First published April 6, 2001

About the author

Randall Herbert Balmer, Ph.D. (Princeton University, 1985), is an ordained Episcopal Priest and historian of American religion, and holds the John Phillips Chair in Religion at Dartmouth College. He also has taught at Barnard College; Columbia, Rutgers, Princeton, Drew, Emory, Yale and Northwestern universities; and at Union Theological Seminary. Balmer was nominated for an Emmy Award for the PBS documentary "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory," based on his book of the same title.