Looking for good books regarding Protestantism, religion and the American revolution

by BobsenJr

Hello /r/askhistorians

I was hoping some of you had some good sources regarding Protestantism, religion and the American revolution. I would like to learn more about how religion (and specifically the various protestant branches) influenced the revolution. There seems to be a lot of books where religion is briefly mentioned (The Glorious Cause, Robert Middlekauf), but I haven't found a book specifically about this topic. I was hoping you could help me out.

Thanks in advance.

uncovered-history

So you may want to check out our recommended books section of /r/AskHistorians. I created a section called Religion in American History and added a bunch of books on different aspects to early American religion there. Each book also has summaries posted after it that are excerpts from scholars in academic journals. All of them come highly recommended.

I wanted to mention one thing though. You mention "protestant" in your question, as if that label could be used to describe all non-Catholics during the era. While you are correct that this label existed then, it did not mean that all non-Catholics got along. In fact, most Protestant sects hated each other in colonial and early American history. There are several factors for this, but one major example is that in many states, such as Maryland and Virginia, the Anglican church was the official state church and were given certain privileges, such as imposing taxes to support the Church of England on all citizens. Other sects hated them for this. Most sects hated Catholics, but not all. Maryland Quakers, for instance, banded together between 1692 - 1707 to try and fight discrimination against them (Quakers made up 10% of the state's population at this time and Catholics 8%, so they were much more powerful as allies), but these religious alliances broke up shortly thereafter. Similar can be seen for many other sects. The American Revolution was a very divisive time for religion in America. The Church of England began to fracture within America. Minorities like Methodists, Baptists, and Quakers were actively persecuted by Patriots. The whole situation was kind of a mess.

If you wanted an easy place to get a solid foundation, I strongly recommend Religion in American Life: A Short History by Jon Butler, Grant Wacker and Randall Balmer. This book is a textbook -- but it's not expensive ($10 on kindle and $20 paperback) is written by 3 well-respected scholars, and they give a great comprehensive understanding to what was happening with religion throughout American history. Jon Butler does the early American portion and is one of the most well-respected scholars on this topic, so starting with him is great.

Please let me know if you have any other questions!

hmmcintyre

One that I really like that deals specifically with this is "Under the Cope of Heaven: Religion, Society and Politics in Colonial America" by Patricia Bonomi. (You can probably read it for free here but I'm not sure if you need a library/university login or you can find it on Amazon here.) It covers the decades leading up to the Revolution and the first half is about the general religious context while the second half deals with how religion and politics influenced each other (including an argument that religious dissent in the Great Awakening period got Americans involved in public dissent and reconstructing institution, just like they later did in the Revolution). It talks a lot about what u/uncovered-history said about the religious diversity of the time and differences between Protestant groups - in fact, it cites that diversity and individualism in religion as one of the factors that linked religion and the Revolution (ex, most religious groups fought against getting an Anglican Bishop sent to America, because that Church of England hierarchy seemed like "the thin edge of the wedge" of further British control of American life). Bonomi also shows that preachers, ministers and priests also became Patriots in the majority (even the Anglican priests did!) and preached openly political sermons that encouraged their parishioners to support the Revolution.