A Fiery Gospel : The Battle Hymn of the Republic and the Road to Righteous War / Richard M. Gamble.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gamble, Richard M., author.

Series:

Religion and American public life (Cornell University Press)

Religion and American Public Life

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Howe, Julia Ward, 1819-1910. Battle hymn of the Republic.

Battle hymn of the republic (Song).

Nationalism--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Nationalism.

Nationalism--United States--History--19th century.

Civil religion--United States--History--19th century.

Civil religion.

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Religious aspects.

United States.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (296 pages).

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2019]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Since its composition in Washington's Willard Hotel in 1861, Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic" has been used to make America and its wars sacred. Few Americans reflect on its violent and redemptive imagery, drawn freely from prophetic passages of the Old and New Testaments, and fewer still think about the implications of that apocalyptic language for how Americans interpret who they are and what they owe the world. In A Fiery Gospel, Richard M. Gamble describes how this camp-meeting tune, paired with Howe's evocative lyrics, became one of the most effective instruments of religious nationalism. He takes the reader back to the song's origins during the Civil War, and reveals how those political and military circumstances launched the song's incredible career in American public life. Gamble deftly considers the idea behind the song-humming the tune, reading the music for us-all while reveling in the multiplicity of meanings of and uses to which Howe's lyrics have been put. "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" has been versatile enough to match the needs of Civil Rights activists and conservative nationalists, war hawks and peaceniks, as well as Europeans and Americans. This varied career shows readers much about the shifting shape of American righteousness. Yet it is, argues Gamble, the creator of the song herself-her Abolitionist household, Unitarian theology, and Romantic and nationalist sensibilities-that is the true conductor of this most American of war songs. A Fiery Gospel depicts most vividly the surprising genealogy of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," and its sure and certain position as a cultural piece in the uncertain amalgam that was and is American civil religion.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

The Battle Hymn of the Republic

Prologue

1. The Besieged City

2. A Rich Crimson

3. "The Glorious Freedom of His Gospel"

4. Righteous War and Holy Peace

5. The Anglo-American "Battle Hymn"

6. The Valor of Righteousness

7. The Sacred Inheritance of Mankind

8. Exotic Medley

9. A Severed Nation

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 30. Apr 2019)

ISBN:

1-5017-3642-6

OCLC:

1076370167