Hello: Today we're pleased to introduce our newest contributing editor, Matt Sutton, formerly of Oakland University, as of this fall Professor of History at Washington State University in Pullman, WA (hey, congratulations on the new gig, Matt!). Most recently, Matt is the author of the widely-acclaimed Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America, recently favorably reviewed in Books and Culture and elsewhere.
Matt stirred up a firestorm with his previous guest post; today he comes not to bury, but to boost! Welcome to Matt.
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Boosting the Booster
Matt Sutton
Ed Blum is a busy guy. He lectures on religion to rooms full of students who spend their weekends running the United States’ largest university drug trafficking ring; soaks up the rays on San Diego’s beautiful beaches; gives interviews to Newsweek; and remains up-to-date on the Gilmore Girls; yet he still finds time to read and promote the latest work in American religious history. I have certainly benefitted from his boosterism. Since he has been such a faithful promoter of my work, I figured I had better put aside my reading on Gog, Magog, and “the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof” (you all know that Ezekiel here is referring to the United States, right?) and pick up Blum’s Reforging the White Republic: Race, Religion, and American Nationalism, 1865-1898 and W.E.B. DuBois: American Prophet
These are impressive books—it seems that Ed and I will have to form a mutual admiration society. What I like about Blum’s work is that he is doing much, much more than simply “filling a gap.” Nor is he content with making religion another layer to pile on top of existing work on Reconstruction, American nationalism, and DuBois. Instead, he does what all religious historians aspire to—he makes the compelling case that religion is central to our understanding of the pivotal issues in American history. He makes bold arguments, hunting for the big game, slicing and dicing Bancroft and Pulitzer-Prize winning historians such as Eric Foner and David Levering Lewis. Whether or not Blum is always right (of course, he is always right), he forces his readers to engage with his argument. You cannot ignore him. Blum’s combination of smooth writing, diligent research, and bold argumentation change the ways in which we approach the past, which is a tremendous benefit to all historians of American religion. Now all Ed needs to do is develop some better taste in DVD rentals.
Matt stirred up a firestorm with his previous guest post; today he comes not to bury, but to boost! Welcome to Matt.
____________________________________________
Boosting the Booster
Matt Sutton
Ed Blum is a busy guy. He lectures on religion to rooms full of students who spend their weekends running the United States’ largest university drug trafficking ring; soaks up the rays on San Diego’s beautiful beaches; gives interviews to Newsweek; and remains up-to-date on the Gilmore Girls; yet he still finds time to read and promote the latest work in American religious history. I have certainly benefitted from his boosterism. Since he has been such a faithful promoter of my work, I figured I had better put aside my reading on Gog, Magog, and “the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof” (you all know that Ezekiel here is referring to the United States, right?) and pick up Blum’s Reforging the White Republic: Race, Religion, and American Nationalism, 1865-1898 and W.E.B. DuBois: American Prophet
These are impressive books—it seems that Ed and I will have to form a mutual admiration society. What I like about Blum’s work is that he is doing much, much more than simply “filling a gap.” Nor is he content with making religion another layer to pile on top of existing work on Reconstruction, American nationalism, and DuBois. Instead, he does what all religious historians aspire to—he makes the compelling case that religion is central to our understanding of the pivotal issues in American history. He makes bold arguments, hunting for the big game, slicing and dicing Bancroft and Pulitzer-Prize winning historians such as Eric Foner and David Levering Lewis. Whether or not Blum is always right (of course, he is always right), he forces his readers to engage with his argument. You cannot ignore him. Blum’s combination of smooth writing, diligent research, and bold argumentation change the ways in which we approach the past, which is a tremendous benefit to all historians of American religion. Now all Ed needs to do is develop some better taste in DVD rentals.
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