Every election cycle, American evangelicals are heavy hitters on the demographic scene, a force to be reckoned with for journalists, pundits, politicians, and political strategists. But it was not always so. Who exactly are the evangelicals, where did they come from, and what does the term “evangelical” even mean?
Joseph Slaughter, assistant professor of history at Wesleyan University, addresses these questions as he examines the complexity of a group that spans multiple denominations, regions, and ethnicities. Slaughter traces the 400-year-old story of evangelicalism in America, stretching back to the first decades of European settlements in North America. From its origins in the 16th and 17th centuries to its periods of growth in adherents and influence from the 18th through the 21st, he highlights key doctrines, figures, and events that shaped and transformed what it has meant to be an evangelical in America