American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation

At a time when our nation appears divided by extremism, American Gospel attracts on the previous to supply a brand new perspective. Meacham re-creates the fascinating historical past of a nation grappling with faith and politics–from John Winthrop’s “metropolis on a hill” sermon to Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence; from the Revolution to the Civil Conflict; from a proposed nineteenth-century Christian Modification to the Structure to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s name for civil rights; from George Washington to Ronald Reagan.

Debates about faith and politics are sometimes extra divisive than illuminating. Secularists level to a “wall of separation between church and state,” whereas many conservatives act as if the Founding Fathers had been apostles in knee britches. As Meacham reveals on this brisk narrative, neither excessive has it proper. On the coronary heart of the American experiment lies the God of what Benjamin Franklin referred to as “public faith,” a God who invests all human beings with inalienable rights whereas defending personal faith from authorities interference. It’s a nice American balancing act, and it has served us effectively.

Meacham has written and spoken extensively about faith and politics, and he brings historic authority and a way of hope to the problem. American Gospel makes it compellingly clear that the nation’s finest probability of summoning what Lincoln referred to as “the higher angels of our nature” lies in recovering the spirit and sense of the Founding. In wanting again, we could discover the sunshine to steer us ahead.

Reward for American Gospel

“In his
American Gospel, Jon Meacham supplies a refreshingly clear, balanced, and sensible historic portrait of faith and American politics at precisely the second when such equity and understanding are a lot wanted. Anybody who doubts the relevance of historical past to our personal time has solely to learn this distinctive guide.”
—David McCullough, writer of 1776

“Jon Meacham has given us an insightful and eloquent account of the non secular basis of the early days of the American republic. It’s particularly instructive studying at a time when the nation is directly engaged in and deeply divided on the query of faith and its place in public life.”
—Tom Brokaw, writer of The Biggest Technology