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Hellfire nation : the politics of sin in American history
- Author
- Morone, James A., 1951-
- Title
- Hellfire nation : the politics of sin in American history / James A. Morone.
- Format
- Book
- Published
- New Haven : Yale University Press, c2003.
- Description
- xii, 575 p. : ill., maps ; 25 cm.
- URL
- <Table of contents> http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/toc/fy038/2002007541.html
- Notes
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Contents
-
- Introduction : A nation with the soul of a church
- pt. 1. The Puritan foundations of morality politics (1630-1776). Us : the city on a hill
- Them : heretic, heathen, and witch
- The Puritans become America
- pt. 2. The abolitionist crusade (1800-1865). The wrath of God in Black and white
- Abolition!
- South : the pro-slavery argument
- North : the ragged chorus of the Union
- pt. 3. The Victorian quest for virtue (1870-1929). Purity and the woman's sphere
- White slaves and the modern witch-hunt
- Temperance : crucible of race and class
- Prohibition and the rise of big government
- pt. 4. The Social Gospel at high tide (1932-1973). The New Deal call to alms
- Manifest destiny and the Cold War
- The sixties
- pt. 5. The Puritans roar again. Modern morals.
- Review
- "The American Constitution firmly separates church and state. Yet religion lies at the heart of American polities. How did America become a nation with the soul of a church? In Hellfire Nation, James Morone recasts American history as a moral epic. From the colonial era to the present day, Americans embraced a Providential mission, tangled with devils, and aspired to save the world." "Moral fervor ignited our fiercest social conflicts - but it also moved dreamers to remake the nation in the name of social justice. Moral crusades inspired abolition, woman suffrage, and civil rights, even as they led Americans to hand witches, enslave Africans, and ban liquor. Today moral arguments influence everything from abortion to impeachment, from education to foreign policy."--Jacket.
- Kinsey subjects
- Social conditions--United States. Social ethics history--United States.
- ISBN
- 0300094841 (alk. paper) 9780300094848 (alk. paper)