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Monica L. Mercado Finding community (at the Catholic Summer School of America, 1897). Where has the time gone? As July comes to an end, I've been catching up on the many tributes to our humble blog and blogmeister(s) during this tenth anniversary year, and coping with the waves of nostalgia that I feel looking at my very first RiAH blog post  -- a summertime musing on a summertime history, that of the late nineteenth-century women of the Catholic Summer School of America. A few posts later , I remain grateful to this community for intellectual companionship and camaraderie, both online and off. As a historian of women's religious and intellectual communities, it is perhaps no surprise that I first came to the blog seeking virtual community. A Ph.D. student in a History department where very few students took religion seriously, I wondered what new work on women and gender in American religious history could look like, and years before I ever wrote for RiAH, I read and re-read...

Today's guest post comes from someone who probably needs no introduction to readers. Kathryn Lofton wears many hats at Yale University (including Professor of Religious Studies, American Studies, and History , Chair of the Department of Religious Studies, and Deputy Dean for Diversity and Faculty Development ). In these roles and more informal ones, she has contributed to the study of American religion in a number of ways, such as her first book , Oprah: Gospel of an Icon , her forthcoming book, Consuming Religion , and her co-editing of Frequencies: A Genealogy of Spirituality and Chicago book series, Class 200 , (both) with John Lardas Modern. To my mind, though, these formal contributions (while impressive in their own right) barely scratch the surface of KL's gifts to our group blog and in our shared field of American religion. Thanks, Katie, for your reflection and your support of our digital community! Kathryn Lofton  I used to dislike Terry Gross. I probably still d...

Lauren Turek Let me add my voice to the chorus of congratulations to the blog on its 10 year anniversary. I have learned so much from reading everyone's contributions and it was very meaningful for me when Cara asked me to begin contributing about three years ago. Blogmeisters Paul Harvey, Cara Burnidge, and Michael Hammond provide our multidisciplinary field with such a tremendous service by hosting and tending to this project. One of my favorite aspects of the blog is the diversity of subjects covered under the general heading of religion in American history. I have enjoyed contributing posts and reading posts from others that reflect in some way on the transnational dimension of this history, as well as on more contemporary religious issues in historical perspective. The religious dynamics of current international conflicts, including the refugee crisis, and ongoing cultural change in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere receives regular comment in national and international...

Today's guest post comes from former Blogmeister Kelly Baker. Soon after Paul began the Religion in American History blog, Kelly became co-editor alongside him. As she describes below, her posts were varied in their topics, but each helped to expand and solidify an American Religion digital community. You can read her past posts under the tag Baker's posts and you can follow her writing career through her website or Tiny Letter .  Thanks, Kelly, for these reflections and all of your hard work in establishing this community of scholars!   Kelly J. Baker In the summer of 2007, I decided to start my own blog on American religious history. I was sort of shocked that no one had started one yet because blogs were a thing that even academics knew existed. To make sure that no American religions blog existed, I did one quick Google search. Paul Harvey had beat me to the punch. He had just started a blog called Religion in American History, and he outranked me. He was a full professo...

Emily Suzanne Clark  As other posts this month have noted, this is the 10th birthday for the Religion in American History blog and here's another post on that topic. I didn't start reading the blog until it was in year three when I was a first-year Ph.D. student, and the blog helped me figure out the field of American religions and American religious history. I didn't start focusing on American religions until the middle of my M.A. program at the University of Missouri (I have Chip Callahan and Kristin Schwain to thank for that). Being a terminal M.A., the Religious Studies graduate program at Mizzou was small but mighty, so I wasn't really introduced to a community of American religions scholars until I started my Ph.D. work at FSU. Finding the blog at the same time really showed me how big and kind of intimidating this field was, but the blog immediately countered that intimidation with collegiality.  I think a big reason for the collegiality of the blog is Paul Ha...

Charles McCrary I have appreciated the reflections on and odes to Religion in American History posted this month. It’s been edifying to read of the blog’s role in the lives of many of my colleagues and friends and to consider its place in our field. I’ll add my short reflection here. Personally, I don’t know the field without this blog. And really, in many ways, I know the field through this blog. In the summer of 2007, when the blog launched, I was not a scholar of religion. I was 17 years old, and I delivered the Fargo Forum to doorsteps in the wee hours of the morning and Rooty Tooty Fresh ‘N Fruity® pancakes  to tabletops in the non-peak hours of the afternoon. Two years later, though, I was majoring in religion, entering my junior year, and trying to figure out what I would study in grad school. After various dalliances with Kierkegaard, Mādhyamikas, and early Christians (being an undergrad is great and weird), I decided to get serious with American religious history. But I d...

Mark Edwards It was nearly five and a half years ago that I got an email from Darren Dochuk inviting me to review a book for Paul Harvey's Religion in American History blog.  My first thought was, "what's a blog?"  Second thought: "Who's Paul Harvey?"  As a technological dinosaur, I was unaware of the role that digital media had begun to play in building and advancing intellectual community.  Having been an Assistant Professor of, well, religion in American history for five years, with a book about to come out on that topic, my lack of awareness of Paul and RiAH  showed how terribly alone I was as a scholar. In retrospect, I feel like joining Team Harvey (obligatory sports reference accomplished) has served entirely selfish purposes: RiAH has been an essential means of my continuing education.  The blog is more to me than a place for posting book reviews, sharing research, reflecting on current events, and publishing notices--as valuable as all those are...

Andrea L. Turpin Happy 10th birthday, RiAH! One of the things I have most appreciated about this blog is its breadth. In the words of John Fea , paying tribute to blog founder Paul Harvey, RiAH combines “opinion, news from the profession, historical reflection on current events, and new research” and also fosters a “sense of community” around these shared interests. I love that I can come here to read about research in progress, how religious history intersects with current events, and also tips for best practices on all aspects of teaching, researching, and writing about the history of American religion. In large part these objectives are accomplished by having so many contributors with diverse passions centered around a common theme. I only joined this illustrious company in 2017, so I figured the best tribute I could offer this month would be to add a piece to one of the great series on the blog, Know Your Archives. I spent two weeks last month at the Presbyterian Historical Society...

The Cushwa Center would like to introduce one of its new postdoctoral research associates, who will be overseeing the center's monthly blogging at RIAH.  Benjamin J. Wetzel specializes in American religious, political, and intellectual history in the period from 1860 to 1920.  Ben looks forward to working with fellow postdoc Pete Cajka (already well-known to readers of this blog) at the Cushwa Center in the coming academic year. Benjamin J. Wetzel Thomas Jefferson's reputation has suffered in recent years.  In 2015, at the College of William & Mary (his alma mater), students covered Jefferson's campus statue with post-it notes reading "racist" or "slave owner."  Last month, the University of Virginia began plans to honor the labor of slaves who literally built the university, reminding the public again of Jefferson's own life-long ownership of slaves.  At a more trivial level, the reputation of Jefferson's rival Alexander Hamilton has wit...

Paul Putz Paul Harvey signing books for one of the members of his fan club All this #10thAnniversay stuff has made me sentimental, so I went back and looked at my first RiAH blog post. It was posted in May 2013, and it involved a discussion of Kanye West, Jesus, and Paul Harvey's and Ed Blum's book  The Color of Christ. Its sole redeeming quality, so far as I can tell, was that it included a link to the Amazon page for  The Color of Christ. The lesson: post links to other people's books and they might let you write for their blog. For me the best part of RiAH has been the people who come with it, the online network of scholars who write, read, or comment on the blog. Even unknown grad students like me can find a place at the table. Most of the conference panels in which I've participated and the research ideas I've pursued (including my switch in dissertation topics) have been influenced in some way by people I've connected with because of RiAH. While I'm lu...

Elesha Coffman I like academic conferences. Always have. Way back when I was the editor of Christian History magazine, I attended a Conference on Faith and History meeting in San Diego and then the American Society of Church History winter meeting in San Francisco, searching for new story ideas and potential authors. My husband, Eric, was with me in San Francisco, and we found ourselves in an elevator with two tweed-coated male historians who were so engrossed in their conversation that they were just riding up and down, oblivious to whatever floor they were supposed to be heading to. When we were out of earshot, Eric asked me, "Are these your people?" and I knew that the answer was "Yes." Soon I had left journalism for grad school in the history of American religion. This blog has functioned, for me, primarily as an extension of academic conferences. My very first posts, in summer 2011, recapped the Religion and American Culture conference, which had raised two hu...

Michael J. Altman I wrote Paul an email saying something to the effect of: “Hi, I’m Mike. Your blog ignores Asia. I can write about Asia.” I still can’t believe Paul let me on this blog. The idea that you’d just give me the ability to post something without anyone reading it or editing it is insane. The freedom to just put ideas out there and then get a response from a ready-made audience who was interested. The challenge of figuring out how to provoke that audience, how to get them to engage, was intoxicating. I’ve tried to walk a line between history and religious studies in my work. I learned how to walk that line by writing for this blog. How do I take the theoretical work I do and make it not just intelligible, but useful, for someone trained in a history department? What can I learn from these historians? This blog is my academic baby book . I went from a baby just out of coursework to a professor with a published book . It’s all there in the posts. Along the way, this blog helpe...

John Fea Paul Harvey is Cheers , I am Frasier . Harvey is Dallas , I am Knots Landing . Harvey is  The Mary Tyler Moore Show , I am  Rhoda  (or maybe  Lou Grant ). Hopefully you are picking up the theme.  My blog " The Way of Improvement Leads Home " will always be known as a somewhat inferior spin-off to Paul Harvey's " Religion in American History ." (RiAH). When I was asked to write something for the 10th anniversary of RiAH, I dug up an old post at The Way of Improvement Leads Home that captures my blogging journey and the role that Paul and RiAH has played in it. Here is a taste of that post:   Whatever blogging "career" I might have I owe to Paul Harvey.  On July 5, 2007 I found Harvey's new blog (it was a solo operation then) called Religion in American History and wrote a comment on a post I liked on W.E.B. DuBois. Here is what I wrote:   Paul: Great post. I found your blog on the Cliopatria blogroll and have enjoyed readi...

Editor's Note:  As Jonathan and Chris have recently pointed out, July 2017 marks the beginning of Religion in American History' s tenth year. Happy birthday to us! Throughout the month we'll be celebrating and reflecting upon the contributions shared and inspired through the blog...not to mention its intellectual and creative founding father, Paul Harvey. Today's post comes from another pillar of the RiAH community, Ed Blum, who--to the surprise of no one--models a longstanding RiAH value of sharing and highlighting the work of others. Edward Blum The blog always felt like a big classroom to me – where we could bring up books, ideas, evidence, and everything else. I routinely use posts from the blog in my class and so I thought it would be fun to put together a little list of materials for some main themes in American religious history. Please forgive my excessive focus on the twentieth-century … since students seem to like it the most that’s where I gravitate in th...

By Chris Cantwell The thing I remember most about the summer of 2007 was feeling lonely. Having passed my comprehensive exams at Cornell University in upstate New York the prior summer, my partner and I had recently made the decision to relocate to Chicago so I could conduct my dissertation research. It was an exciting move as I had grown up about an hour and a half west of the metropolis and had long been fascinated by its history. But it was also an isolating experience as I didn't really know anyone in the city proper. Research only reinforced this sense isolation. My days became spent holed up in archives or alone at my desk reading, writing, reading, and reading some more. At times my only solace was this new thing called Facebook, which my Cornell colleagues demanded I join so we could keep in touch after we moved. But on the afternoon of July 26, 2007, I received an invitation to join an even larger community of friends, colleagues, and fellow travelers. The first post as it...

Emily Suzanne Clark The Journal of Southern Religion and MAVCOR Journal (published by the Center for the Study of Material and Visual Cultures of Religion) are pleased to announce a call for submissions for a joint issue titled "Material and Visual Cultures of Religion in the American South." We are interested in submissions in a range of formats: original scholarly articles, review essays, photo essays, interviews with southern religious artists and/or religious professionals, object narratives, or retrospectives of previously published work (one's own or others'; books or films). Both journals enable submissions containing rich digital materials of various sorts and we highly encourage submissions with visual, audio, video, or other types of media. Please direct submissions and inquiries to both Journal of Southern Religion associate editor Emily Suzanne Clark ( clarke2@gonzaga.edu ) and MAVCOR Journal editor and curator Emily Floyd ( emily.floyd@yale.edu ). We ...

Jonathan Den Hartog Via cliparts.co/clipart/4990 Blogmeister Cara Burnidge has pointed out that this month the Religion in American History Blog turns 10. Happy Birthday! 2007 seems a long time ago professionally, as this rather fresh Ph.D. had just completed his first year of teaching in Minnesota. Even out of graduate school, I quickly became aware of the Religion in American History blog. It was a great way to keep a finger on the pulse of American Religious History and monitor what people were thinking about. Several years later, I appreciated the invite from blog founder Paul Harvey to contribute. One of my earliest posts was this one, a review of a novel about American missionaries abroad . I appreciate Paul's grace as I learned the ropes, whether of etiquette (not stepping on someone else's post!) or of technology, as one of my posts broke the site (hint: Microsoft products and blogger don't play well together). Participating in the blog has allowed me to stay in t...

Cara Burnidge Declaration of Independence Frederick Douglass, " What To The Slave Is the Fourth of July? " (1841), Black Perspectives Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions , 1848 Emma Lazarus, " The New Colossus " (1883); Steve Macone, " The New 'New Colossus '" (2017) Irvin Berlin "God Bless America" (1918; 1938); performed by Kate Smith Langston Hughes, " I, Too, Sing America ," 1926 [poem only]; with analysis from Smithsonian historian David Ward Langston Hughes, " Let America Be America Again " [with images]; [ read by James Earl Jones ] Allen Ginsberg, " America " (1956; performed ?) Odetta, " Battle Hymn of the Republic " (1956); performed Johnny Cash ; performed by Joan Baez Martin Luther King, Jr. " The American Dream ," (1965) Jimi Hendrix, " Star Spangled Banner ," (1969); Whitney Houston, " Star Spangled Banner ," (1991) Ray Charles, " America the B...

Kyle Roberts is Associate Professor of public history and new media at Loyola University Chicago and director of the Jesuit Libraries Provence Project. I recently interviewed Kyle about his new book, Evangelical Gotham: Religion and the Making of New York City, 1783-1860 (University of Chicago Press). PC: What happens to early American Religious History – and American history – if we locate evangelical revivals in New York City rather than at Cane Ridge? What should we rethink? KR: In graduate school in the early 2000s, the scholarship that I found most engaging was about evangelicalism and urban religion. Yet the two rarely overlapped. Antebellum evangelicalism was often told as a rural story – more likely to focus on camp meetings on the frontier than on outpourings of the spirit in urban churches. We knew more about Cane Ridge in 1801 than Allen Street in 1832. Works of urban religion tended to be post-Civil War studies of religious groups moving into urban environments created by o...