Matthew Hill

Reviewed by Matthew Hill, History, Liberty University Each of us in our own way inherit traditions that are often little understood. Churches are stocked with American flags, and songs such as Katherine Lee Bates’s “America the Beautiful” and Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” are often sung on the Fourth of July, but few understand how…

Reviewed by Matthew Hill, History, Liberty University For too long, the religious dimension of the American presidency has been neglected. Outside the never-ending debate on the religious convictions of the Founding Fathers, four of whom became president, far too little research has been devoted to this subject. The religious dimensions of the Civil War have…

Reviewed by Matthew Hill, History, Liberty University Much ink has been spilled in recent years rediscovering many “forgotten founders” and arguing for a more diversified range of ideas of the founders on church and state issues. Excessive devotion to the likes of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison as well…

More than two decades ago, James M. McPherson’s landmark Battle Cry of Freedomhailed a new era of interest in American Civil War studies.James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988). Curiously missing, however, from the standard works on the Civil War before the mid-1990s was sustained…

Historians by nature seek new methodologies in understanding old stories, and this work deftly reexamines a familiar narrative in novel fashion. The story of American religionis generally told chronologically, moving from century to century, or topically, such as examining Puritan communities in New England or Quaker communities in Pennsylvania. Amanda Porterfield and John Corrigan, two…