God's Own Party: The Making of the Christian Right

by Daniel K. Williams

Overview

When the Christian Right burst onto the scene in the late 1970s, many political observers were shocked. But, as God's Own Party demonstrates, they shouldn't have been. The Christian Right goes back much farther than most journalists, political scientists, and historians realize. Relying on extensive archival and primary source research, Daniel K. Williams presents the first comprehensive history of the Christian Right, uncovering how evangelicals came to see the Republican Party as the vehicle through which they could reclaim America as a Christian nation. A fascinating and much-needed account of a key force in American politics, God's Own Party is the only full-scale analysis of the electoral shifts, cultural changes, and political activists at the movement's core—showing how the Christian Right redefined politics as we know it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199929061
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	06/12/2012
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	402
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Associate Professor of History at the University of West Georgia.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter 1: From Isolation to Influence
Chapter 2: The Emergence of a Fundamentalist Right
Chapter 3: God and Country during the Kennedy Presidency
Chapter 4: The Christian Silent Majority
Chapter 5: Nixon's Evangelical Strategy
Chapter 6: The Grassroots Campaign to Save the Family
Chapter 7: Culture Wars in the Carter Years
Chapter 8: Moral Majority
Chapter 9: Reagan
Chapter 10: Crashing the Party
Chapter 11: Capturing the White House
Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

''Williams...does as well as any writer to date in answering the basic questions of what went into making up the religious right.'' —The New Republic

''Thoroughly researched and engagingly written...God's Own Party should serve as the standard history of the latest Protestant Right for the foreseeable future.'' —Journal of American History

''A wonderfully thorough account of the Christian Right...A bright example of sound methodology, clear and concise prose, and rigorous analysis. Based on years of painstaking research in a multitude of periodicals, personal and political papers, and organizational records, God's Own Party effectively transports the reader through time, charting the development of Christian right-wing activism over the course of ninety years.'' —Journal of Southern Religion

''The best general study of the Religious Right.'' —Church History

"I have long sought a book that would present the history of how the GOP became, in the mind of most conservative Christians, God s Own Party...This is the book I have been waiting for...For an interesting and objective history of the Christian Right, I highly recommend Williams book. —Laurence M. Vance, LewRockwell.com

"[T]his book is a needed addition to scholarship on the rise of the New Right."—Religious Studies Review

From the Publisher