One Nation Underneath God: How Company America Invented Christian America

Standard knowledge holds that America has been a Christian nation because the Founding Fathers. However in One Nation Underneath God, historian Kevin M. Kruse argues that the concept of “Christian America” is nothing greater than a fable—and a comparatively latest one at that.

The belief that America was, is, and at all times shall be a Christian nation dates again no additional than the Nineteen Thirties, when a coalition of businessmen and spiritual leaders united in opposition to FDR’s New Deal. With the total assist of Dwight Eisenhower within the Fifties, these activists—the forerunners of the Non secular Proper—propelled faith into the general public sphere. Church membership skyrocketed; Congress added the phrase “underneath God” to the Pledge of Allegiance and made “In God We Belief” the nation’s official motto. For the primary time, America grew to become a completely spiritual nation.

Provocative and authoritative, One Nation Underneath God reveals how the comingling of cash, faith, and politics created a false origin story that continues to outline and divide American politics at this time.