America's Book

Reviews / Votes

Noll covers the contentious place the Bible had in shaping "a Bible civilization"...(i)f there was an issue of religious and public debate during the nineteenth century, the Bible was part of it, and Noll covers it. * John M. Mulder, a former president of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and a historian of American Christianity, The Presbyterian Outlook * America's Book stands as a monumental scholarly achievement, but it is also valuable for lay readers. All future scholars who study this subject will cite and rely upon America's Book, and they will come to depend on its survey and synthesis of the primary sources, and for filling in and identifying important gaps in the existing scholarly literature. * Yisroel Ben-Porat, Ph.D. candidate in early American history at CUNY Graduate Center, Tradition Online * America's Book documents the extent of the Bible's reach -- from the printing and distribution of Bibles and the creation of Sunday schools to the intellectual dead ends into which unwise handlers of the Bible were led. The book's breadth is a tribute to Mr. Noll's career as an interpreter of Protestantism in North America * D.G. Hart, The Wall Street Journal * No one knows more about the Bible in American public life than Mark Noll. In this landmark volume, he shows how the Protestant dream of a Bible civilization collapsed in the exegetical impasse over slavery. He also brings his subtle insight and unflinching honesty to bear on other plot lines, producing an epic history worthy of Scripture itself. Everyone interested in American religion must reckon with this book. * Peter J. Thuesen, author of Tornado God: American Religion and Violent Weather * Mark Noll's America's Book recounts the public role of the Bible in the United States from the beginning of the republic through the early twentieth century. Noll tells a complex and fascinating story with measured judgments and penetrating insights. Filled with fascinating details, this book is a work of both original research and impressive synthesis. Noll is attuned to ironies and silences but is also deeply respectful of the human struggle with both the scriptures and the culture. Reviewers may run out of superlatives. * George C. Rable, author of God's Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War * Noll tells a story of extraordinary breadth and complexity both briskly and clearly. He consistently embeds the Bible's role in American life in the cultural conditions that made it possible. Noll's erudition is like old money: always present but tastefully held in the background. The book will provoke a host of responses, both popular and academic, but it is hard to imagine that any will rival, let alone surpass, the sheer brilliance of his achievement. * Grant Wacker, Gilbert T. Rowe Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Christian History, Duke Divinity School * America's Book shines as the magnum opus of arguably the most eminent historian of American Christianity during the past century. This magisterial volume is the authoritative study of how the Bible and American national history shaped each other. Meticulously researched, compellingly argued, and masterfully written, it belongs on every serious reader's bookshelf. * Candy Gunther Brown, author of The Word in the World: Evangelical Writing, Publishing, and Reading in America, 1789-1880 * In a breathtaking scholarly work, Mark Noll explores the doomed experiment of a republic built on an unwritten law of sola scriptura. * Brad East, The Christian Century * It is well worth the time investment; it is an important contribution to the study of both the history of Christianity and American history. * Jennifer Wojciechowski, Lutheran Quarterly * The readability and very reasonable price of this lengthy tome open it to a wide audience, and the 150 pages of endnotes will make the book useful to scholars of American history as well as American religion. * Choice * In my institution, I am told, homiletics professors urge their students to remember one guideline: the Bible is more interesting than you are... America's Book comes as close to that benchmark as any work published in recent memory. The journey ahead promises both enlightenment and no small measure of pleasure. * Grant Wacker, Church History * America's Book drives to a concluding chapter titled "Still Under a Bushel" that gathers Black Church counter-examples to the book's central story of biblical conflict,... This is a perfect ending to a massive book of prodigious learning. * Gary Dorrien, Church History * Mark Noll's new book is a masterpiece. A monumental work of scholarship and erudition, America's Book merits respect for its artistry as well. The writing is lucid and well crafted. * Amanda Porterfield, Church History * Mark Noll's history of what he labels America's Protestant Bible civilization certainly has the feel of encyclopedic comprehensiveness. * Leigh E. Schmidt, Church History * Noll's erudition on the role of the Bible in American public life is absolutely stunning, and America's Book: The Rise and Decline of a Bible Civilization, 1794-1911 will reward the reading of experts and nonexperts alike... [A]nyone who wishes to understand a multitude of American intellectual vectors in relation to the Bible, including those touching on politics, religion, science, race relations, law, and literature, will not find a better book than Noll's magisterial tome on America's book. * Journal of Religion * America's Book: The Rise and Decline of a Bible Civilization, 1794-1911 will reward the reading of experts and nonexperts alike. * Paul C. Gutjahr, The Journal of Religion * America's Book is a monumental, career-crowning work by one of the very best historians of religion in America...an essential work for all students of religion in American and the Bible in modern societies. * David R. Bains, Journal of Religious History * Provides an invaluable roadmap and interpretive framework for understanding its importance to American history, both past and present. * Robert E. Brown, Journal of Church and State * It is a triumph. * Jonathan D. Sassi, The Journal of American History * The book is as fascinating as it is definitive. Noll gives us in-depth case studies, deals comprehensively and generously with the scholarly literature, and offers insightful interpretations, both historical and theological. * Paul J. Gutacker, Fides et Historia * America's Book requires a commitment on the part of the reader, but the time and effort is worthwhile. The best attributes of America's Book are its depth and breadth, covering many more people, groups, and ideas than can be mentioned in this review. * David Torbett, Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology * From the gently deistic assumptions of Washington, Jefferson, and others in the Revolutionary era to the sharp-edged readings of Black and female voices emerging in the nineteenth century, Noll provides us with a massive and discouraging record of howAmericans have used and misused Scripture in the past. Its misuse is embedded so deeply in our society that it is hard to imagine finding a better way forward. * Christopher L. Webber, Anglican and Episcopal History *