One Nation Under God Summary

One Nation Under God Growing up in a Christian household, I was raised in believing that the United States and God went together. Even throughout all my schooling up until college I blindly participated in the pledge of allegiance, national anthem and other ceremonies that connected the country to god. I never questioned where my belief came from and for that matter where all of this nation’s god association came from. Being actively interested in history I knew that the pledge wasn’t always practiced within the United States so I never knew where we came up with the pledge of allegiance came from and where the god part came from. All my questions were answered with this book. This non-fiction book is entitled One Nation Under God and was …show more content…
Kruse takes every chapter to look specific topics within this religious revival scene during this time period. Kruse places each chapter in chronological order so that each chapter leads into one another while also making sense to the reader. Each chapter takes on a topic then Kruse goes in depth about that topic. In the first chapter, the author first introduces the basic premise of the book which is evident within the title which is “ Freedom Under God”. This chapter talks about the pre world war II period while transitioning into the post war period. We are introduced to the spiritual mobilization group that was very popular and powerful, they had a charismatic leader in James Fifield Jr. he was the leader of the First Congregational Church in Los Angeles. The spiritual mobilization spread pamphlets around the nation, these pamphlets attacked the New Deal society that had been created by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the democrats of the time. This spiritual mobilization soon gained the attention of big business’s and their leaders like J Howard Pew Jr., who was the president of Sun Oil.(16) Through this chapter we see the incorporation of big business and religious movements and we see the theme of money being an integral part of the religious revival. The second …show more content…
All of these sources help to validate all of his arguments throughout the book. The sources he includes help to show who actually was involved within this religious revival of sorts. The men who he quotes had prominent positions within the government, businesses and society in general. They include major actors, actresses and pastors. The book is generally strong with its supporting of the main argument, the inclusion of specific quotes that further make the argument stronger. Kruse also does a strong job explaining every situation he presents in the book. By doing this we, as readers can understand where religion came into their world. Kruse finally, does a great job in keeping the reader’s attention by having dialogue that is interactive while also informative. Where the author shows weakness is presenting a better overall history of religion within the United States, he discusses this periodically throughout the book. However, I feel if he set a section aside to discuss brief overview of religion in the United States it would be easy for a reader to get understand the book better. I also think he should have added something about Muslim’s within America and how they were effected by Corporate America. Prior to reading this book I was under the illusion that our nation was one of Christianity and a nation that was founded on religion wherein reality after reading this book, I