About this item
A historian's acute take on current American politics "Believe me" may be the most commonly used phrase in Donald Trump's lexicon. Whether about building a wall or protecting the Christian heritage, the refrain is constant. And to the surprise of many, about eighty percent of white evangelicals have believed Trump - at least enough to help propel him into the White House. Historian John Fea is not surprised - and in Believe Me he explains how we have arrived at this unprecedented moment in American politics. An evangelical Christian himself, Fea argues that the embrace of Donald Trump is the logical outcome of a long-standing evangelical approach to public life defined by the politics of fear, the pursuit of worldly power, and a nostalgic longing for an American past. In the process, Fea challenges his fellow believers to replace fear with hope, the pursuit of power with humility, and nostalgia with history.
About the Author
John Fea chairs the History Department at Messiah College in Grantham, PA. His writing on early American history has appeared in a variety of scholarly and popular venues. He is the author of *The Way of Improvement Leads Home: Philip Vickers Fithian and the Rural Enlightenment in America* (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008) , *Confessing History: Explorations in Christian Faith and the Historian's Vocation* (Notre Dame University Press, 2010) ; *Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? : A Historical Introduction* (Westminster/John Knox Press, Feb. 2011, revised ed. Sept. 2016) ;, Why Study History: Reflecting on the Importance of the Past* and, most recently, The Bible Cause: A History of the American Bible Society. He blogs daily at www.thewayofimprovement.com
