This course surveys the complex entanglements of religion and politics from the colonial era through the current day. Topics covered include: religious liberty and toleration, secularization, the rise of African-American churches, the Civil War, national identity and the Protestant establishment, the religious politics of women's rights, religion and the market, the Cold War, the civil rights movement, the religious left and right, debates over church-state separation, constructions of religious pluralism, religion after 9/11, and the rise of Christian nationalism.
History