ePub Eyes of an Eagle: Jean-Pierre Cenac; Patriarch: An Illustrated History of Early Houma-Terrebonne by Christopher Everette Cenac in History

Description

In this timely; carefully reasoned social history of the United States; the New York Times bestselling author of Religious Literacy and God Is Not One places today’s heated culture wars within the context of a centuries-long struggle of right versus left and religious versus secular to reveal how; ultimately; liberals always win.Though they may seem to be dividing the country irreparably; today’s heated cultural and political battles between right and left; Progressives and Tea Party; religious and secular are far from unprecedented. In this engaging and important work; Stephen Prothero reframes the current debate; viewing it as the latest in a number of flashpoints that have shaped our national identity. Prothero takes us on a lively tour through time; bringing into focus the election of 1800; which pitted Calvinists and Federalists against Jeffersonians and “infidels;” the Protestants’ campaign against Catholics in the mid-nineteenth century; the anti-Mormon crusade of the Victorian era; the fundamentalist-modernist debates of the 1920s; the culture wars of the 1980s and 1990s; and the current crusade against Islam.As Prothero makes clear; our culture wars have always been religious wars; progressing through the same stages of conservative reaction to liberal victory that eventually benefit all Americans. Drawing on his impressive depth of knowledge and detailed research; he explains how competing religious beliefs have continually molded our political; economic; and sociological discourse and reveals how the conflicts which separate us today; like those that came before; are actually the byproduct of our struggle to come to terms with inclusiveness and ideals of “Americanness.” To explore these battles; he reminds us; is to look into the soul of America—and perhaps find essential answers to the questions that beset us.