This well-written, powerfully argued book demonstrates the almost incestuous link between politics, power, and religion.
Choice
American Crusade is a fascinating history about how Christian duty and patriotic citizenship became intertwined during the three major wars between 1860 and 1920. It is a multisided history that draws on counterexamples to show that while these were prevailing ideas of the time, they were also challenged and shaped by marginalized groups within the United States.
H-net
Overall, though, Wetzel's engaging book makes a convincing case that this was a distinctive era of Protestant thought, one in which the mainline sanctified the nation's military endeavors, but in the process, spurred other Christians to offer new visions of the nation.
AMERICAN CATHOLIC STUDIES
The most important contribution of American Crusade to studies of religion, war, and Christian nationalism is Wetzel's thoughtful and complex examination of the dissenters to Christian nationalism. These views necessarily revealed a more complicated picture.
H-Net
American Crusade is a well-ordered and very readable book filled with evocative and often poignant quotations from a range of primary sources. In each chapter, Wetzel addresses the existing scholarship and describes the "new insights" his analysis offers.
H-Net
