Public Confessions

The Religious Conversions That Changed American Politics

This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Buy on Amazon Buy on BN.com Buy on Bookshop.org
*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app

1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date 05 Oct 2021 | Archive Date 27 Sep 2021

Talking about this book? Use #PublicConfessions #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!


Description

Personal reinvention, from relatively minor changes like a nickname to major transformations in gender identity, is a core part of the human condition. New identities can help people cast off an unappealing past, align with a group in which one seeks membership, or attain personal or professional goals. 

The second half of the twentieth century was marked by a startling number of religious conversions among American celebrities, becoming fodder —often critical—for newspapers and gossip columns.  Rebecca L. Davis reveals how the contradictory pressures to conform to a specific vision of Americanism and to celebrate the freedom of religion made conversions both attractive and threatening to the American public. Through lively stories of individuals’ conversions, we learn that the act of changing religions was often viewed as selfish, reckless, and nonconformist, but it also accomplished significant political work.

Rebecca L. Davis is Miller Family Early Career Professor of History at the University of Delaware. She is author of More Perfect Unions: The American Search for Marital Bliss.

Personal reinvention, from relatively minor changes like a nickname to major transformations in gender identity, is a core part of the human condition. New identities can help people cast off an...


Advance Praise

“Davis succeeds at weaving biography and analysis and big-picture significance together in seamless fashion, making for an enjoyable as well as instructive read.”—Darren Dochuk, author of Anointed with Oil: How Christianity and Crude Made Modern America

“In this brilliant book, Rebecca Davis illuminates the religious conversions of prominent Americans in the postwar era and the public power of religion in America itself. Well researched and well written, Public Confessions is a must-read work of history.” — Kevin M. Kruse, author of One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America

“Davis succeeds at weaving biography and analysis and big-picture significance together in seamless fashion, making for an enjoyable as well as instructive read.”—Darren Dochuk, author of Anointed...


Available Editions

EDITION Hardcover
ISBN 9781469664873
PRICE $30.00 (USD)

Available on NetGalley

NetGalley Shelf App (PDF)
Send to Kindle (PDF)