Review Essay: Religion, War, and the Meaning of America
The norm of American national life is war. From colonial origins to the present, Americans have never seen a generation that was not preoccupied with wars, threats of wars, and military interventions on foreign soils. This is not something Americans—or American historians—are trained to think about....
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Review |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
[2009]
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| In: |
Religion and American culture
Year: 2009, Volume: 19, Issue: 2, Pages: 275-289 |
| Further subjects: | B
Book review
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The norm of American national life is war. From colonial origins to the present, Americans have never seen a generation that was not preoccupied with wars, threats of wars, and military interventions on foreign soils. This is not something Americans—or American historians—are trained to think about. In American memory and mythology, the United States is, at heart, a nation of peace; it unleashes the quiver of war as a last resort and only when pushed. In like manner religion, especially what we now call evangelical Protestantism, has been a conspicuous presence in American wars from the seventeenth century to the present. American wars are sacred wars and American religion, with some notable exceptions, is martial at the very core of its being. The ties between war and religion are symbiotic and the two grew up inextricably intertwined. |
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| ISSN: | 1533-8568 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion and American culture
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1525/rac.2009.19.2.275 |