The Evangelicals - The Library of the Uncommons

Hardcover

English language

Published Nov. 15, 2017 by Simon & Schuster.

ISBN:: 978-1-4391-3133-6

(1 review)

This groundbreaking book from Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Frances FitzGerald is the first to tell the powerful, dramatic story of the Evangelical movement in America -- from the Puritan era to the 2016 presidential election. The evangelical movement began in the revivals of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, known in America as the Great Awakenings. A populist rebellion against the established churches, it became the dominant religious force in the country. During the nineteenth century white evangelicals split apart dramatically, first North versus South, and then at the end of the century, modernist versus fundamentalist. After World War II, Billy Graham, the revivalist preacher, attracted enormous crowds and tried to gather all Protestants under his big tent, but the civil rights movement and the social revolution of the sixties drove them apart again. By the 1980s Jerry Falwell and other southern televangelists, such as Pat Robertson, had formed the Christian right. …

This groundbreaking book from Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Frances FitzGerald is the first to tell the powerful, dramatic story of the Evangelical movement in America -- from the Puritan era to the 2016 presidential election. The evangelical movement began in the revivals of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, known in America as the Great Awakenings. A populist rebellion against the established churches, it became the dominant religious force in the country. During the nineteenth century white evangelicals split apart dramatically, first North versus South, and then at the end of the century, modernist versus fundamentalist. After World War II, Billy Graham, the revivalist preacher, attracted enormous crowds and tried to gather all Protestants under his big tent, but the civil rights movement and the social revolution of the sixties drove them apart again. By the 1980s Jerry Falwell and other southern televangelists, such as Pat Robertson, had formed the Christian right. Protesting abortion and gay rights, they led the South into the Republican Party, and for thirty-five years they were the sole voice of evangelicals to be heard nationally. Eventually a younger generation of leaders protested the Christian right's close ties with the Republican Party and proposed a broader agenda of issues, such as climate change, gender equality, and immigration reform. Evangelicals have in many ways defined the nation. They have shaped our culture and our politics. Frances FitzGerald's narrative of this distinctively American movement is a major work of history, piecing together the centuries-long story for the first time. Evangelicals now constitute twenty-five percent of the American population, but they are no longer monolithic in their politics. They range from Tea Party supporters to social reformers. Still, with the decline of religious faith generally, FitzGerald suggests that evangelical churches must embrace ethnic minorities if they are to survive. - Publisher.

1 edition

Matthew Royal reviewed The Evangelicals by Frances FitzGerald

Review of 'The Evangelicals' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Fascinating synthesis of the history of the evangelical movement in the us. I think the author considers the movement to be dead now politically and demographically. The evidence definitely could suggest that, but history has shown that this "group" is rather amorphous and changes shape as needed to survive. The political activism of Falwell and Dobson ironically dealt a death blow to the movement's younger generation. Whereas young families appreciated Dobson's family advice via books and radio programs, similar supports either aren't offered today or aren't enough to counter the toxic political vibe, and families are going elsewhere.

The coherence of the narrative dissolves as it approaches the modern history of the tea party. The vector of evangelicalism appears to go nowhere right now, but with the remnants of their blocks responsible for the election of Donald Trump, I don't interpret that as an end to the movement, but perhaps …

Fascinating synthesis of the history of the evangelical movement in the us. I think the author considers the movement to be dead now politically and demographically. The evidence definitely could suggest that, but history has shown that this "group" is rather amorphous and changes shape as needed to survive. The political activism of Falwell and Dobson ironically dealt a death blow to the movement's younger generation. Whereas young families appreciated Dobson's family advice via books and radio programs, similar supports either aren't offered today or aren't enough to counter the toxic political vibe, and families are going elsewhere.

The coherence of the narrative dissolves as it approaches the modern history of the tea party. The vector of evangelicalism appears to go nowhere right now, but with the remnants of their blocks responsible for the election of Donald Trump, I don't interpret that as an end to the movement, but perhaps a transformation of it into the civic religion of an authoritarian state. I don't know that we truly have enough perspective on those times to be writing about them in the same way we can about the era of the ERA and Moral Majority, so I look forward to an update to this book in 30 years.