Book Review: Religion and the American Presidency, Edited by Mark J. Rozell and Gleaves Whitney

When it comes to thinking about America, one of the first things that comes to my mind is the religious freedom that we enjoy here. This country was founded on religious, Christian in fact, principles. Many laws that we have were implemented from the Bible itself. With the most important political figure being the president, it is only natural that the office of the president would have been affected by religion. Religion and the American Presidency is a summary of the different religious beliefs that several presidents have held throughout history.

Chapter 1 is merely an introduction to religion and the presidency, including presidential campaigns. Chapters 2-14, the remainder of the book discuss the individual presidents and how religion affected their lives.

• Chapter 2 – George Washington
• Chapter 3 – Thomas Jefferson
• Chapter 4 – James Madison
• Chapter 5 – Abraham Lincoln
• Chapter 6 – Harry S Truman
• Chapter 7 – Dwight D. Eisenhower
• Chapter 8 – John F. Kennedy
• Chapter 9 – Jimmy Carter
• Chapter 10 – Ronald Reagan
• Chapter 11 – Bill Clinton
• Chapter 12 – George W. Bush
• Chapter 13 – Barack Obama
• Chapter 14 – Donald Trump

There is not much to analyze with this book. With it being a history of the religion in these Presidents’ lives, not much subjective material is present. That being said, some personal bias will always reign, especially when politics are involved. This book did a good job of avoiding that as much as possible. For these reasons, I give this book 4 stars out of 5. 

WHERE TO BUY THIS BOOK:

http://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319621746

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THIS BOOK:

Rozell, Mark J. and Gleaves Whitney. Religion and the American Presidency. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International, 2018.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL: I received a complimentary copy of this book through the Springer book review program, which requires an honest, though not necessarily positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.