Top Books on America's Christian Right

1. Baptized in Blood: The Religion of the Lost Cause, 1865-1920

The American South is called the "Bible Belt" for good reasons: religion is much more a part of culture, politics, and the general social order than it is in other parts of the United States. This has significant implications because none of the political, social, or cultural developments in the South can be studied without taking into account the fact that religion - Christianity, specifically - plays an integral role in what's going on. This includes slavery, the Civil War, and the aftermath.

2. Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt

What is the American 'Bible Belt' and how did it originate? Why did the most conservative strains of Christianity moved from New England down to the South? Much has been written about Southern evangelical and fundamentalist Christianity in America, but not a lot has been written about its very earliest origins: how a mostly Anglican region based upon money and commerce was converted to the Baptist and Methodist denominations based on authoritarianism and masculinity.

3. For a Christian America: A History of the Religious Right

Nowadays Christian fundamentalists play an important role in American politics, yet that hasn't always been the case - for decades they isolated themselves from the political scene. All of that changed, in the 1970s, but why did it change, and how did fundamentalism itself change because of it?

4. Why the Religious Right is Wrong

Is the separation of church and state really just a myth, something the founders never actually intended? Was the United States founded as a "Christian Nation," thus meaning that the current trend towards secularism represents an unacceptable break with our own history? According to the Religious Right, the answers to these questions are an unqualified "Yes."

5. Religion, Politics, and the Christian Right

The power and influence of America's Christian Right is undeniable, so of course there have been innumerable books seeking to explain how the movement developed and what it means for American politics. Most such books focus on religion and religious explanations, yet we must remember that this is an American movement - there isn't anything quite like it elsewhere.

6. Rapture Culture: Left Behind in Evangelical America

Conservative evangelical Christians are an important part of American culture, yet they are a part of culture which the rest of society often doesn't pay much attention to; this forms a basis for their complaints that despite their power and numbers, they are a persecuted minority. The one thing they can point to positively, however, are the Left Behind series of books.

7. American Theocracy: Peril & Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, Borrowed Money

The power and influence of America's Christian Right is an important story, but it's not the whole explanation for the political success of the Republican Party - nor is it the whole problem for America when the GOP is in power. There are other important factors at work and a thorough understanding of what's going wrong in America requires an ability to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. This requires more historical understanding than most Americans seem to have.

8. Preacher: Billy Sunday and Big-Time American Evangelism

When televangelists came upon the American scene in the 1980s, they had an enormous impact upon not only American culture, but also upon the wider public perception of Christianity. This was not, however, the fist time religion appeared on television, but it was the beginning of evangelistic revivalism broadcast across the nation and around the world.