Description

Americas Book shows how the Bible decisively shaped American national history even as that history influenced the use of Scripture It explores the rise of a strongly Protestant Bible civilization in the early United States that was then fractured by debates over slavery contested by growing numbers of nonProtestant Americans and torn apart by the Civil War

This first comprehensive history of the Bible in America explains why Tom Paines antibiblical tract The Age of Reason 1794 precipitated such dramatic effects how innovations in printing by the American Bible Society created the nations publishing industry why Nat Turners slave rebellion of 1831 and the bitter election of 1844 marked turning points in the nations engagement with Scripture and why Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were so eager to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the King James Version of the Bible

Nolls magisterial work highlights not only the centrality of the Bible for the nations most influential religious figures but also why it was important for presidents like Abraham Lincoln notable American women like Harriet Beecher Stowe Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Frances Willard campaigners for civil rights like Frederick Douglass and Francis Grimk lesserknown figures like Black authors Maria Stewart and Harriet Jacobs and others