America was founded in 1776, but it was only in 1953, with the inauguration of Dwight David Eisenhower as the 34th president, that it became a Christian nation. Such is Kevin M. Kruseâ??s thesis and, after reading â??One Nation Under God,â? it makes perfect sense.
For almost a generation, historians have turned to the so-called religious right to explain contemporary rhetoric about Christian America. Mr. Kruse, a professor of history at Princeton, looks beyond recent debates and even the Reagan-era efforts of social conservatives such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson to return the country to its more devout roots. He locates the first overt assertions of Christian nationalism in the now faded but once vigorous network of postwar Protestants, both in the mainline denominations and in the emerging born-again organizations.
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