15% off
Alfred A. Knopf Hardback English
Righteous Strife
How Warring Religious Nationalists Forged Lincoln's Union
Save 15%
-
The first major account of the American Civil War to give full weight to the central role played by religion, reframing the conflict through Abraham Lincolns contentious appeals to faith-based nationalism How did slavery figure in Gods plan? Was it the providential role of government to abolish this sin and build a righteous nation? Or did such a mission amount to religious tyranny and pulpit politics, in an effort to strip the southern states of their God-given rights? In 1861, in an already fracturing nation, the tensions surrounding this moral quandary cracked the United States in half, and even formed rifts within the North itself, where antislavery religious nationalists butted heads with conservative religious nationalists over their visions for Americas future. At the center of this melee stood Abraham Lincoln, who would turn to his own faith for guidance, proclaiming more days of national fasting and thanksgiving than any other president before or since. These pauses for spiritual reflection provided the inspirational rhetoric and ideological fuel that sustained the war. In Righteous Strife, Richard Carwardine gives renewed attention to this crucible of contending religious nationalisms, out of which were forged emancipation, Lincolns reelection, and his second inaugural address. No understanding of the American Civil War is complete without accounting for this complex dance between church and stateone that continues to define our nation.
The first major account of the American Civil War to give full weight to the central role played by religion, reframing the conflict through Abraham Lincolns contentious appeals to faith-based nationalism
How did slavery figure in Gods plan? Was it the providential role of government to abolish this sin and build a righteous nation? Or did such a mission amount to religious tyranny and pulpit politics, in an effort to strip the southern states of their God-given rights? In 1861, in an already fracturing nation, the tensions surrounding this moral quandary cracked the United States in half, and even formed rifts within the North itself, where antislavery religious nationalists butted heads with conservative religious nationalists over their visions for Americas future.
At the center of this melee stood Abraham Lincoln, who would turn to his own faith for guidance, proclaiming more days of national fasting and thanksgiving than any other president before or since. These pauses for spiritual reflection provided the inspirational rhetoric and ideological fuel that sustained the war.
In Righteous Strife, Richard Carwardine gives renewed attention to this crucible of contending religious nationalisms, out of which were forged emancipation, Lincolns reelection, and his second inaugural address. No understanding of the American Civil War is complete without accounting for this complex dance between church and stateone that continues to define our nation.