Religion and the American Revolution - (Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American Histo) by Katherine Carté (Hardcover)

About the Book

"For most of the eighteenth century, British Protestantism was driven neither by the primacy of denominations nor by fundamental discord between them. Instead, it thrived as part of a complex transatlantic system that bound religious institutions to imperial politics. As Katherine Cartâe argues, British imperial Protestantism proved remarkably effective in advancing both the interests of empire and the cause of religion until the war for American independence disrupted it. That Revolution forced a reassessment of the role of religion in public life on both sides of the Atlantic. Religious communities struggled to reorganize within and across new national borders. Religious leaders recalibrated their relationships to government. If these shifts were more pronounced in the United States than in Britain, the loss of a shared system nonetheless mattered to both nations. Sweeping and explicitly transatlantic, Religion and the American Revolution demonstrates that if religion helped set the terms through which Anglo-Americans encountered the imperial crisis and the violence of war, it likewise set the terms through which both nations could imagine the possibilities of a new world"--

Book Synopsis

For most of the eighteenth century, British protestantism was driven neither by the primacy of denominations nor by fundamental discord between them. Instead, it thrived as part of a complex transatlantic system that bound religious institutions to imperial politics. As Katherine Carté argues, British imperial protestantism proved remarkably effective in advancing both the interests of empire and the cause of religion until the war for American independence disrupted it. That Revolution forced a reassessment of the role of religion in public life on both sides of the Atlantic. Religious communities struggled to reorganize within and across new national borders. Religious leaders recalibrated their relationships to government. If these shifts were more pronounced in the United States than in Britain, the loss of a shared system nonetheless mattered to both nations.

Sweeping and explicitly transatlantic, Religion and the American Revolution demonstrates that if religion helped set the terms through which Anglo-Americans encountered the imperial crisis and the violence of war, it likewise set the terms through which both nations could imagine the possibilities of a new world.

Review Quotes

"Religion and American Revolution excels as a history of protestant power in and through the American Revolution . . . [that] compellingly examines and critiques the mechanisms and architecture by which protestants asserted themselves through networks, despite their religious rhetoric never having been a necessary cause for the American Revolution or the founding of the United States."--American Religion

"[Carte's] recovery of imperial Protestantism is a notable research achievement and a valuable addition to the new transatlantic assessment of the Revolution."--Journal of Church and State

"A timely contribution to the historiography of the rise and fall of the first British Empire. . . . [F]uture scholars will be inspired by [Carté's] findings."--Church History

"A timely Atlantic story [and] . . . a reorientation of how we should think about the nation's founding."--Society for U.S. Intellectual History

"Carté has produced a study that needs to be read."--Journal of American History

"Carté's book is valuable to anyone who wants to understand the role of established religion in the British Empire and the reasons why established religion was abandoned after the war. . . . Carefully researched, clearly written, and interesting to read."--Journal of the American Revolution

"Carté's work encourages further engagement with a topic whose consequences reach far into the present."--Journal for the History of Theology

"Perhaps the most extensive study of public religion across the British Empire in the Revolutionary era. . . . Religion and the American Revolution will stand as an important touchstone for historians of the American Revolution and historians of eighteenth-century religion."--H-Early-America

"Your reviewer does not use this word often, but Katherine Carté's book . . . is brilliant. . . . By looking through an imperial lens Carté gives us a new and different perspective. This book warrants careful reading. Many things we thought we knew about the Revolution will have to be given a second look."--Anglican and Episcopal History

About the Author

Katherine Carté (who previously published as Katherine Carté Engel) is associate professor of history at Southern Methodist University, with affiliations in the Religious Studies department.