Rough Country
How Texas Became America's Most Powerful Bible-Belt State
-
- $22.99
-
- $22.99
Publisher Description
How the history of Texas illuminates America's post–Civil War past
Tracing the intersection of religion, race, and power in Texas from Reconstruction through the rise of the Religious Right and the failed presidential bid of Governor Rick Perry, Rough Country illuminates American history since the Civil War in new ways, demonstrating that Texas's story is also America’s. In particular, Robert Wuthnow shows how distinctions between "us" and “them” are perpetuated and why they are so often shaped by religion and politics.
Early settlers called Texas a rough country. Surviving there necessitated defining evil, fighting it, and building institutions in the hope of advancing civilization. Religion played a decisive role. Today, more evangelical Protestants live in Texas than in any other state. They have influenced every presidential election for fifty years, mobilized powerful efforts against abortion and same-sex marriage, and been a driving force in the Tea Party movement. And religion has always been complicated by race and ethnicity.
Drawing from memoirs, newspapers, oral history, voting records, and surveys, Rough Country tells the stories of ordinary men and women who struggled with the conditions they faced, conformed to the customs they knew, and on occasion emerged as powerful national leaders. We see the lasting imprint of slavery, public executions, Jim Crow segregation, and resentment against the federal government. We also observe courageous efforts to care for the sick, combat lynching, provide for the poor, welcome new immigrants, and uphold liberty of conscience.
A monumental and magisterial history, Rough Country is as much about the rest of America as it is about Texas.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wuthnow, the director of the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University, argues that Texas, dubbed "rough country" by its first European explorers, has become conservative state most influential in shaping the nation's culture, values, and politics. Armed with a wealth of information gathered from news accounts, oral histories, government records, and census data, Wuthnow concludes that Texas, with its wealth and sheer numbers of conservative Protestant voters, evolved from a bastion of frontier justice into a powerhouse of traditional moralism on such hot-button issues as vice, abortion, homosexuality, immigration, and race. Mostly refugees from the Deep South, early Texans embraced religion as a spiritual gauge for their daily lives, but their harsh attitudes toward race and equal rights remained largely unchanged until President Lyndon Johnson, a Texan, signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Wuthnow provides perspective on the political clout of clergy reformers and activists, starting with the electoral triumphs of J.F.K., L.B.J., Ann Richards, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush, all of whom courted the pious Texans to gain votes. Anyone seeking to examine the relationship between modern American religious conservatism and politics needs to look no further than Wuthnow's authoritative, encyclopedic survey of Texas's influence on national trends.
