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Loading... Liars For Jesus: The Religious Right's Alternate Version of American History Vol. 1 (original 2006; edition 2006)by Chris RoddaThis book is a thoroughly researched response to the attempts of evanglical Christians to rewrite American history. The author quote extensively from the writings of the founders, as well as from other works of the time, to demolish all attempts to demonstrate that the US was intended to be a Christian nation. For a self-published book, it is very well done, with very few typos or blatant errors, especially for such a thick book. The typefaces are a bit less than great, but overall, the work is well edited, and some of the typeface changes were intended to set apart the different types of works she was quoting. I do think there would have been better ways to do it, and that detracted from the professional look of the book. The only real complaint I have with the book itself is the title. Though I am not one to ignore in your face confrontation, I think the problem with this title is that few of the people who need it the most will ever pick it up - those people who are moderate to liberal Christians but are finding themselves convinced by the slew of books by evangelicals. In this particular case, the title is the sort that could leave the author preaching to the choir, and though the choir often needs a bit of information to arm themselves, in this case the book would be much more useful in the hands of the moderate Christians, who unfortunately get up in arms everytime they think someone is slighting or mocking Jesus. Other than that, it is a book that has been researched down to the minutest detail of history, and should prove a valuable addition to works on the topic. I read the Kindle edition, which had some glitches (I've seen worse, though) where sentences ended in mid-air or sentence fragments drifted. Rodda does a terrific job laying what the religious right says about US history and the Founding Fathers up against primary source documents. Even if people are a bit put off by the title, I really don't see how they can argue with the accuracy of it. These lobbyists for the christianization of the US are prooftexting in historical material the same way people prooftext in the Bible. They cut off ends of sentences if that last little bit negates their point. It would be one thing if it were just a point else where in a multi-page document, but they are clearly including only the fragments that support their view. They assign the wrong author to material to make them look more religious. And Rodda is just getting started. Where she really shines is when she has to pause and set the scene for us. Her background material on historical events is really quite vivid and compelling and turned what I thought was going to be just a point-by-point refutation (and it is for the most part) into a stroll through the past with a seasoned docent. If there were more of that fleshing out, I'd have given it that last star, but that isn't the point of this book. It's for those of us who need quick access to just the facts, ma'am, to arm ourselves against The Liars. The title of the book is certainly offensive to some people. The minister who wrote the forward says he tried to persuade Ms. Rodda to change it, but she was determined. After reading the book, I understand why she kept the title. The book is a refutation of the work of many of those who write books supporting the idea that the Founding Fathers were Christian and meant this to be a Christian nation. Rodda, in exhaustive detail, demolishes their arguments. In doing so, it becomes obvious that the writers she refutes weren't simply bad historians. They manipulated the historical record too much for that to be the case. Though at times the detail gets overwhelming, at other times it provides some fascinating glimpses into the early history of the United States. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)322Social sciences Political Science Relation of the state to organized groups and their membersLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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