One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America Paperback – May 3, 2016 by Kevin M. Kruse (Oxford University Press)

Excellent documentation on how the Pledge of Allegiance was modified along with ‘In God We Trust’ inserted on all U.S.coins and currency. Kruse provides history of how industrial big-wigs in an attempt to rescind the ‘New Deal’ (because they didn’t want to support any measure of social welfare) promoted conservative aspects of the Bible in an effort to convince American voters to roll back the New Deal. They inserted ‘liberty’ and ‘freedom’ along with trusting in God in their public campaign. When the McCarthy hearings came along with the communist witch-hunt, their campaign stressing God gained momentum, reaching the pinnacle while Eisenhower was President. Ike initiated the first public prayer in his inaurgral speech, had too close connection to Billy Graham who was in his ascendency, started cabinet meeting with prayer, approved amending the Pledge of Allegiance with ‘One Nation Under God’, and eagerly approved a bill requiring ‘In God We Trust’ on all U S Currency. It was noted that one of the very few who opposed the amendment was the Universalist Ministers in 1954. I found the book pretty depressing until Kruse got into the U S Supreme Court decisions in the 60’s restraining prayer in public schools, citing Jefferson’s ‘wall of separation between Church & State’.

We're often told that the United States is, was, and always has been a Christian nation. But in One Nation Under God, historian Kevin M. Kruse reveals that the belief that America is fundamentally and formally Christian originated in the 1930s.

To fight the “slavery” of FDR's New Deal, businessmen enlisted religious activists in a campaign for “freedom under God” that culminated in the election of their ally Dwight Eisenhower in 1952. The new president revolutionized the role of religion in American politics. He inaugurated new traditions like the National Prayer Breakfast, as Congress added the phrase “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance and made “In God We Trust” the country's first official motto. Church membership soon soared to an all-time high of 69 percent. Americans across the religious and political spectrum agreed that their country was “one nation under God.”

Provocative and authoritative, One Nation Under God reveals how an unholy alliance of money, religion, and politics created a false origin story that continues to define and divide American politics to this day.