Satan in America

Reviews / Votes

Poole's engaging, wide-ranging survey of Satan in America from the Puritans to the War on Terror is an insightful and provocative counterpoint to works by Stephen Prothero and others of Jesus in America. Poole shows how much the enemy always has been within us and then projected outward. -- Paul Harvey, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs From witch hunts of the colonial period to wars on terror in the modern era, from the raspy voice of blues musicians to the foreboding demonic presence in major motion pictures, Satan has been everywhere in American religion and culture. W. Scott Poole offers a brilliant book about the prince of darkness in our current and historical consciousness. This is an outstanding work. -- Edward J. Blum, author of W. E. B. Du Bois, American Prophet Satan in America has an expansive scope. . . . Poole's work will introduce nonspecialists to various interesting American religious figures and ideas. . . . Recommended. -- S. McCloud * Choice Reviews * Poole compellingly documents how the threat of the devil has been used throughout history to justify acts of bigotry, exclusion, and even official acts of cruelty and mass murder, from the colonial Indian wars up to the present. This insightful, profoundly troubling book is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the dark roots of American cultural history. -- Bill Ellis, Penn State University