One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America (Paperback)

"How Corporate America invented Christian America" is a perfect subtitle to Kevin Kruse's excellent book, "One Nation Under God", for as the author discusses, this is what happened to our culture over the course of several decades. It's an eye-opener and he presents an offering full of depth and insight.As Kruse reminds us in the epilogue, the source of America's becoming a "Christian" nation stems from the vitriol of those clergymen who opposed the New Deal. James Fifield and Abraham Vereide, two early proponents of this new America they sought, gave way to Billy Graham and Pat Robertson, who cemented the fact that God and the Republican party were joined at the hip.A large part of the book deals with how U.S. presidents dealt with the issue. Dwight Eisenhower presided over the change in the Pledge of Allegiance to include, "One Nation under God" and that American currency now bore the phrase "In God We Trust". His...Read more

Excellent documentation on how the Pledge of Allegiance was modified along with ‘In God We Trust’ inserted on all U.S.coins and currency. Kruse provides history of how industrial big-wigs in an attempt to rescind the ‘New Deal’ (because they didn’t want to support any measure of social welfare) promoted conservative aspects of the Bible in an effort to convince American voters to roll back the New Deal. They inserted ‘liberty’ and ‘freedom’ along with trusting in God in their public campaign. When the McCarthy hearings came along with the communist witch-hunt, their campaign stressing God gained momentum, reaching the pinnacle while Eisenhower was President. Ike initiated the first public prayer in his inaurgral speech, had too close connection to Billy Graham who was in his ascendency, started cabinet meeting with prayer, approved amending the Pledge of Allegiance with ‘One Nation Under God’, and eagerly approved a...Read more