Sacred Liberty: America's Long, Bloody, and Ongoing Struggle for Religious Freedom
May 2019 · HarperCollins
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About this ebook
“[A] compelling study of the most essential breakthrough of modernity: the right to believe, or not, as one wishes. A great book about a monumental issue.” —Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize–winning author
Sacred Liberty offers a dramatic, sweeping survey of how America built a unique model of religious freedom, perhaps the nation’s “greatest invention.” Steven Waldman, the bestselling author of Founding Faith, shows how early ideas about religious liberty were tested and refined amidst the brutal persecution of Catholics, Baptists, Mormons, Quakers, African slaves, Native Americans, Muslims, Jews and Jehovah’s Witnesses. American leaders drove religious freedom forward—figures like James Madison, George Washington, the World War II presidents (Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower) and even George W. Bush. But the biggest heroes were the regular Americans—people like Mary Dyer, Marie Barnett and W. D. Mohammed—who risked their lives or reputations by demanding to practice their faiths freely.
Just as the documentary Eyes on the Prize captured the rich drama of the civil rights movement, Sacred Liberty brings to life the remarkable story of how America became one of the few nations in world history that has religious freedom, diversity and high levels of piety at the same time. Finally, Sacred Liberty provides a roadmap for how, in the face of modern threats to religious freedom, this great achievement can be preserved.
“This is an important and fascinating book full of riveting stories, provocative insights, inspiring heroes, and some serious warnings. The American model of religious freedom should be the envy of the world. But if we don’t understand how we made this great ‘invention,’ we could easily squander the achievement.” —Reza Aslan, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Zealot
Sacred Liberty offers a dramatic, sweeping survey of how America built a unique model of religious freedom, perhaps the nation’s “greatest invention.” Steven Waldman, the bestselling author of Founding Faith, shows how early ideas about religious liberty were tested and refined amidst the brutal persecution of Catholics, Baptists, Mormons, Quakers, African slaves, Native Americans, Muslims, Jews and Jehovah’s Witnesses. American leaders drove religious freedom forward—figures like James Madison, George Washington, the World War II presidents (Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower) and even George W. Bush. But the biggest heroes were the regular Americans—people like Mary Dyer, Marie Barnett and W. D. Mohammed—who risked their lives or reputations by demanding to practice their faiths freely.
Just as the documentary Eyes on the Prize captured the rich drama of the civil rights movement, Sacred Liberty brings to life the remarkable story of how America became one of the few nations in world history that has religious freedom, diversity and high levels of piety at the same time. Finally, Sacred Liberty provides a roadmap for how, in the face of modern threats to religious freedom, this great achievement can be preserved.
“This is an important and fascinating book full of riveting stories, provocative insights, inspiring heroes, and some serious warnings. The American model of religious freedom should be the envy of the world. But if we don’t understand how we made this great ‘invention,’ we could easily squander the achievement.” —Reza Aslan, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Zealot
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About the author
STEVEN WALDMAN is the national bestselling author of Founding Faith and co-founder of Report for America, a national service program that places talented journalists into local newsrooms. He was National Editor of US News & World Report, National Correspondent for Newsweek, and co-founder of Beliefnet. His writings have also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Washington Post, National Review, Christianity Today, The Atlantic, First Things, The Washington Monthly, Slate, The New Republic and others. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Amy Cunningham.
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