"One of America's finest reporters and essayists explores the powerful currents beneath the roiled waters of a nation coming apart. Across the country, men "of God" glorify materialism, a gluttony of the soul, while citing Scripture and preparing for civil war -- a firestorm they long for as an absolution and exaltation. Lies, greed, and glorification of war boom through microphones at hipster megachurches that once upon a time might have preached...

Author Meacham tells the human story of how the Founding Fathers viewed faith, and how they ultimately created a nation in which belief in God is a matter of choice. At a time when our country seems divided by extremism, this book draws on the past to offer a new perspective. Meacham re-creates the history of a nation grappling with religion and politics--from John Winthrop's "city on a hill" sermon to Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence;...

"A groundbreaking work that overturns the conventional understanding of the Israeli-American relationship and, in doing so, explores how fundamental debates about American identity drive our country's foreign policy"--

America is no longer a majority white Christian nation. In this book, leading scholar Robert R Jones explains how this seismic change has profoundly altered the politics and social values of the United States. For most of the country's history, White Christian America -- the cultural and political edifice built primarily by white Protestant Christians -- set the tone for our national policy and shaped American ideals. But in recent decades new immigration...