Visa as the Mark of the Beast, as imagined by a 1960s Christian tract.

Technology and Apocalypse in America

Some sects of Christian belief have long held that various forms of technology were signs of an approaching apocalypse.

The Real Origins of the Religious Right

They’ll tell you it was abortion. Sorry, the historical record’s clear: It was segregation.
C. L. Franklin and his daughter Aretha.

The Man with the Million Dollar Voice

The mighty but divided soul of C.L. Franklin.

What American Nuns Built

Both the nation and the Church have depended on the energy and expertise of nuns. They’re vanishing. Now what?
Book shelves full of books

Book Culture and the Rise of Liberal Religion

The rise of liberal religion in the United States.
Black-and-white image of sun exploding and vaporizing Earth, titled "Five Roads to Doomsday." Caption reads "This panel of drawings reproduces climactic scenes from Hayden Planetarium's sky drama depicting five catastrophes that could wipe out the world. Above, the sun is shown as it explodes into a new star, vaporizing the earth."
partner

Paradise Lost

Why a hundred thousand Americans were ready to believe that Christ would return to earth in 1843.
Cover of Matthew Avery Sutton's "American Apocalypse" featuring a drawing of people being raptured.
partner

Back to the Fundamentals

Apocalyptic thinking in early Christian fundamentalism.
Brigham Young

The Reds Under Romney’s Bed

The most ambitious social experiment in American history that until 1877, explicitly rejected the core values of Victorian capitalism.
Photo of a newspaper referring to Jewish riots in the New York Times

The Festive Meal

There once was a time when Yom Kippur was a time to eat, drink, and be merry.

Prior Convictions

Did the Founders want us to be faithful to their faith?
William Jennings Bryan, c. 1910s.

All You Need Is Love

The complex history, career, and legacy of one of America's most popular speakers and reformers.
Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln's Great Depression

Abraham Lincoln fought clinical depression all his life. But what would today be treated as a "character issue" gave Lincoln the tools to save the nation.
Doug Wilson

Doug Wilson’s Religious Empire Expanding in the Northwest

While hosting a conference featuring his defense of "Southern Slavery," Douglas Wilson exposes the radicalism of his growing "Christian" empire.
Senator Joseph R. McCarthy speaking

The Paranoid Style in American Politics

It had been around a long time before the Radical Right discovered it.