Satan in America The Devil We Know

by Poole, W. Scott

• ISBN13: 9780742561717
• ISBN10: 0742561712
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-11-16
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

Satan in American tells the story of America's complicated relationship with the devil, "new light" evangelists of the eighteenth century, enslaved African Americans, demagogic politicians, and modern American filmmakers have used the devil to damn their enemies, explain the nature of evil and injustice, mount social crusades, construct a national identity, and express anxiety about matters as diverse as the threat of war to the dangers of deviant sexuality. W. Scott Poole's book shows that both the range and the scope of American religiousness made theological evil an especially potent symbol. Satan appears repeatedly on the political, religious, and cultural landscape of the United States, a shadow self to the sunny image of American Progress and idealism. Book jacket.

Author Biography

W. Scott Poole is associate professor of history at the College of Charleston. He is the author of five books dealing with American religion, race, and popular culture.

Table of Contents

Preface: "Night Stalker": American Exceptionalism and the Reality of Evil	p. ix
Acknowledgements	p. xxv
Diabolical Beginnings
"The Devil Is Come Down in Great Wrath": The American Satan in the Colonial and Revolutionary Worlds	p. 3
Darkness Invisible: The Devil and American Revivalism	p. 33
The Devils of Daniel Webster: Satanic Cultural Politics through World War I	p. 65
The Satanic Century
Casting Out Devils: American Theology and Popular Religion Meets the Devil	p. 95
Hellhound on My Trail: Satan and Twentieth-Century American Culture	p. 125
Lucifer Rising: Satanic Panics and Culture Wars	p. 155
The Beast: Satan and the Theology of American Empire	p. 185
Epilogue: Shame the Devil: The Problem of Evil and American Cultural History	p. 213
Huntingo the Devil: A Bibliographic Essay	p. 221
Index	p. 235
About the Author	p. 243
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