Chosen Land - by Matthew Avery Sutton (Hardcover)

About the Book

"In Chosen Land, historian Matthew Avery Sutton chronicles Christians' five-hundred-year endeavor to turn North America into their version of the kingdom of God, revealing the fruitful and dynamic entanglement between the history of America and the history of American Christianity. In the centuries after Christianity first arrived on American shores, colonizers and colonized from New England to Spanish California practiced many varieties of the faith. After the founding of the United States, the nation's lack of a state religion forced new and evolving strains of Christianity to battle for potential adherents, as they still do to this day. As American Christianity has bent, fractured, and adapted to changing times, Christian belief has shaped everything from the promise of Manifest Destiny to Ronald Reagan's approach to the Cold War, the rise of the Southern Lost Cause narrative to the triumphs of the civil rights movement"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

A sweeping history of Christianity in America, from the arrival of the first Europeans to the political triumphs of evangelicalism, showing the powerful, singular role the faith has always played in American public life.

In the United States today, there is no faith more dominant than Christianity. In Chosen Land, historian Matthew Avery Sutton chronicles Christians' five-hundred-year endeavor to turn North America into their version of the kingdom of God, revealing the fruitful and dynamic entanglement between the history of America and the history of American Christianity.

In the centuries after Christianity first arrived on American shores, colonizers and colonized from New England to Spanish California practiced many varieties of the faith. After the founding of the United States, the nation's lack of a state religion forced new and evolving strains of Christianity to battle for potential adherents, as they still do to this day. As American Christianity has bent, fractured, and adapted to changing times, Christian belief has shaped everything from the promise of Manifest Destiny to Ronald Reagan's approach to the Cold War, the rise of the Southern Lost Cause narrative to the triumphs of the civil rights movement.

A landmark work of narrative synthesis tracing the faith's major figures and currents, Chosen Land confirms the unique place that American Christianity--always both steadfast and precarious--occupies at the center of our shared history.

Review Quotes

"The scope of Chosen Land is breathtaking, spanning the nation's story from the late fifteenth century to yesterday, from the political far left to far right, from elite to popular culture, and from outside to inside the worldview of a plethora of distinct Christian traditions. With a pitch-perfect ear for the cadences of ordinary speech, Sutton successfully works within the sonic world of the home as well as the factory, library, and pulpit. Sutton's main argument--that all of US history can be profitably viewed through the lens of Christianity--is carefully framed and boldly presented. Readers may find some parts more persuasive than others, but that forthrightness adds to the book's appeal. Chosen Land is sure to rank as one of the premier overviews of the entire history of American Christianity."--Grant Wacker, author of America's Pastor

"Matthew Sutton's Chosen Land is an insightful and compelling new interpretation of the history of Christianity in America. Deftly written, Sutton's redefinition of America as a Holy Land is a powerful tool to understand America's history, and its future."--Anthea Butler, author of White Evangelical Racism

"No book has ever told us as much as Chosen Land does about the role of religion in the most enduringly Protestant nation in the industrialized world. Not since Martin Marty's Righteous Empire of more than a half-century ago has a single scholar addressed this topic with the analytic acumen Matthew Sutton brings to the task. Building upon the recent generation's excellent body of scholarship but speaking always in his own voice, Sutton has given us a comprehensive narrative that promises to define professional and popular discussions of religion and politics in American life for a very long time."--David A. Hollinger, author of Christianity's American Fate

"Fast-paced and lucidly written, Chosen Land should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand American religion, and for anyone who wants to understand America."--Kristin Kobes Du Mez, New York Times-bestselling author of Jesus and John Wayne

"Matthew Sutton has written a sweeping, riveting history of how Christianity and America have been perilously entwined. Chosen Land shows us how faith has been both a balm and a weapon, a force of unity and division, and how it remains at the very heart of the American story."--Kate Bowler, New York Times-bestselling author of Everything Happens for a Reason

"With a sweeping narrative and soaring prose, Matthew Sutton makes a powerful argument that the history of American Christianity is inextricable from the history of America itself. Chosen Land is a must read for anyone concerned about the past, present, and future of the Christian faith in the United States."--Kevin M. Kruse, author of One Nation Under God

About the Author

Matthew Avery Sutton is the Claudius O. and Mary Johnson Distinguished Professor and department chair in history at Washington State University. He is the author of five other books on the history of American Christianity, including Double Crossed and American Apocalypse, and the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship. He lives in Pullman, Washington.