One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America

The provocative and authoritative history of the origins of Christian America in the New Deal eraWere often told that the United States is, was, and always has been a Christian nation. But in One Nation Under God, historian Kevin M. Kruse reveals that the belief that America is fundamentally and formally Christian originated in the 1930s.To fight the slavery of FDRs New Deal, businessmen enlisted religious activists in a campaign for freedom under God that culminated in the election of their ally Dwight Eisenhower in 1952. The new president revolutionized the role of religion in American politics. He inaugurated new traditions like the National Prayer Breakfast, as Congress added the phrase under God to the Pledge of Allegiance and made In God We Trust the countrys first official motto. Church membership soon soared to an alltime high of 69 percent. Americans across the religious and political spectrum agreed that their country was one nation under God.Provocative and authoritative, One Nation Under God reveals how an unholy alliance of money, religion, and politics created a false origin story that continues to define and divide American politics to this day.