Sophia C. reviewed on 8/7/2011 + 289 more book reviews

American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us offers a comprehensive look at the American religious landscape from mid-20th century onwards. Putnam and Campbell base most of the chapters on the statistical analysis of their Faith Matters surveys from 2006 and 2007 as well as other broad nation-wide surveys. Intending to reach a lay audience without a statistical background, their writing becomes long-winded at times to preserve precision and provide alternate ways to phrase the findings. Each chapter has an introduction, graphs that are fully explained in the text, and a summarizing conclusion. Luckily, "Vignettes" chapters describing various congregations of different faiths provide a break from the quantitative analysis. Nonetheless, I was impressed with some astute insights by the neutral authors. I learned a lot about the diverse and devout nature of Americans, and was particularly interested in how religion and partisan politics became correlated. Definitely a recommended read for anyone interested in religion in America.

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