This is a well written book. However, it omits to mention anything that was going on at the time. How many books would discuss religion and the rise of the state without even mentioning the depression? Regrettably, that would make for a much longer book, and this one does a fairly good job of concentrating on the religion aspect. Marsden is quite good on the origins of fundamentalism in the North, but cannot really explain why these formerly apolitical people have turned to the right wing so fiercely. He gives these people a pass on their obvious segregationist ties. ( )

This book is an examination of the foundations of fundamentalism in American Protestantism. Marsden looks at the half century after the Civil War. He notes that fundamentalists were the vast majority of Americans in the 1870's but were a minority following World War I. The movement was a continuation of the evangelical tradition but was under assault from modernists who were trying to establish a new, more liberal tradition.

Marsden's most interesting argument is that resistance to evolution wasn't just an issue of doctrine, but that it represented abandoning what defined America. It was a drastic break with the past they treasured and needed to be refuted. He doesn't attribute any one factor as the big reason for the rise of fundamentalism, but says that it was a combination of many reasons, with evolution being only one. By the 1920's their minority position had made them more defensive and more militant, as well as more political, giving rise to the modern fundamentalist movement. ( )

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to better understand Christian Fundamentalism in the United States. My one quarrel, as a secularist, is that the author doesn't really understand the problems that Fundamentalism presents to a Humanist secular culture. ( )

This is a superb and amazing monograph and is recommended to all students of early twentieth-century American religion and culture. This is considered to be a groundbreaking work and one that every historian writing on American Christianity refers to. It is remarkable for the breadth, richness and balance of its interpretations and I doubt it will be surpassed for a very long time to come. Not only does Marsden write a narrative tracing the origins and rise of the movement in post Civil War America but he also shows the social, political, intellectual, and distinctly American aspects of the movement. A must read for anyone wanting to understand American fundamentalism but American Christianity as a whole. ( )

George Marsden argues as an historian, providing a context for a caricature. “Come out from among them and be ye separate,” may be the modern understanding of fundamentalism, but Marsden shows the grassroots beginning of this group of conservatives whose influence though threatened by modernism only grew stronger under attack and eventually became the aggressor rather than the defender of conservative theology and social mores. Marsden records a history of change and the development of the modern day conservative movement. He sees Moody as a transitional figure (33), and this analysis was the most helpful. His understanding of mass evangelism in Britain paves the way for the later ministry and influence of a man like Billy Graham. He follows the formation of organizations like the Salvation Army and the YMCA, seeing their role in creating a place of social responsibility and an avenue of communication with liberals.
Marsden covers some aspects of the opposition to fundamentalism so well that the reader is able to see the opponents as actual catalysts of the creation of fundamentalism. As Darwinian evolution gains influence, Fundamentalism reacts after losing the battle on a public front (the Scopes Trial). Fundamentalism excels as a subculture, never succumbing to Darwinian influence. His suggestion that doctrine was being tested for its suitability for evangelism is dead on. He considers fundamentalism as a social historian, by considering the intellectual, political and American phenomenon. Recognizing a very divergent movement, he writes a Christian but definitely seeks to disavow any sympathy with fundamentalism. Marsden, is obviously not a fundamentalism, but he does write as a Christian. His historical work can and should be carefully considered by both the arenas of Christian and secular scholarship. Within the Christian discipline the book may be foder for the evangelical or liberal branches but it may serve its greatest purpose in helping fundamentalist understand their legacy and learn from their own history. Fundamentalists are not often known for their historical acumen, but this should not be so. As fundamentalism stands as a sentry against a liberal view of Scripture other Christians who treasure the word of God can see in Marsden’s work that Fundamentalists have always stood on the side of the Scripture. Despite overly separatist tendencies, often misguided political involvement and a less than stellar record in the Academy, Fundamentalism has not gone the way of liberalism and has not abandoned their convictions on inerrancy, the first and finest doctrine. Marsden writes an application afterward that would irritate fundamentalists and historians alike. He attempts to shelve the basic question of the role of scripture in understanding historical phenomenon and replace it with a compromise between affirming God’s intervention in history and writing history as mere cultural and social phenomenon. Marsden really epitomizes the changes that took place in evangelicalism and personifies the new evangelical model of cooperation with the liberal denominations, maintaining a mystical association with Christianity, affirming the importance of secular scholarship, buying wholesale from the market of scientific trends, pressing social responsibility over the message of the gospel. He is an apt historian and the value of his work is great, he is not a Biblicist or a fundamentalist, so any work that attempts to understand the history of the church will undoubtedly reach fuzzy conclusions when the standard of faith, practice and all matters of life is anything other than the Word of God.
The most important lessons learned in Marsden’s, Fundamentalism and American Culture have to do with compromise. The fundamentalist involvement in politics was their point of compromise, while not willing to join forces with Darwinianism, they still were able to join forces in politics because of their power and cultural influence. The other poor conclusion made by Marsden is the terribly erroneous thought that one can be faithful; to God apart from fidelity to His Word.