America Aflame
How the Civil War Created a Nation
Book Summary
A narrative history of the Civil War era argues that the conflict occurred as a result of a breakdown induced by the infusion of evangelical religion into the public sphere, causing citizens to regard political differences as matters of good and evil to be fought at any cost.
Genres:
NPR stories about America Aflame
Best Books Of 2012
Librarian Nancy Pearl's Picks For The Omnivorous Reader
I'm not exactly sure why I was so taken with David Goldfield's America Aflame: How the Civil War Created a Nation (Bloomsbury, 2012), but I think it's because it offers a view of the last decades of the antebellum period through Reconstruction years in ways that I had never before considered. Goldfield, a professor of history at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, analyzes the role that evangelical Christianity played in the years leading up to the Civil War. In the first
More From Arts & Life
Comments
You must be signed in to leave a comment. Sign In / Register
Please keep your community civil. All comments must follow the NPR.org Community rules and Terms of Use. NPR reserves the right to use the comments we receive, in whole or in part, and to use the commenter's name and location, in any medium. See also the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy and Community FAQ.
