America is in civic chaos, its politics rife with conspiracy theories and false information. Nationalism and authoritarianism are on the rise, while scientists, universities, and news organizations are viewed with increasing mistrust. Its citizens reject scientific evidence on climate change and vaccinations while embracing myths of impending apocalypse. And then there is Donald Trump, a presidential candidate who won the support of millions of conservative Christians despite having no moral or political convictions. What is going on? The answer, according to J. Eric Oliver and Thomas J. Wood, can be found in the most important force shaping American politics today: human intuition. Much of what seems to be irrational in American politics arises from the growing divide in how its citizens make sense of the world. On one side are rationalists. They use science and reason to understand reality. On the other side are intuitionists. They rely on gut feelings and instincts as their guide to the world. Intuitionists believe in ghosts and End Times prophecies. They embrace conspiracy theories, disbelieve experts, and distrust the media. They are stridently nationalistic and deeply authoritarian in their outlook. And they are the most enthusiastic supporters of Donald Trump. The primary reason why Trump captured the presidency was that he spoke about politics in a way that resonated with how Intuitionists perceive the world. The Intuitionist divide has also become a threat to the American way of life. A generation ago, intuitionists were dispersed across the political spectrum, when most Americans believed in both God and science. Today, intuitionism is ideologically tilted toward the political right. Modern conservatism has become an Intuitionist movement, defined by conspiracy theories, strident nationalism, and hostility to basic civic norms. Enchanted America is a clarion call to rationalists of all political persuasions to reach beyond the minority and speak to intuitionists in a way they understand. The values and principles that define American democracy are at stake.

The continuing cultural encounters of the Americas, between European and indigenous cultures, and between scientific materialism and premodern supernaturalism, have originated new narrative forms. While supernatural short fiction of the Americas belongs to the broad category of the fantastic, which is generally approached synchronically, reading audiences of the past 200 years have shifted their beliefs about the supernatural several times. While nineteenth-century readers understood science as real and the supernatural as imaginary, modern audiences recognize both as inaccurate, a shift which allows authors of supernatural fiction to celebrate premodern indigenous beliefs which were once disdained by a materialist culture. This book situates supernatural short fiction of the Americas within the changing cultural and epistemological contexts of the last 200 years and explores how authors have drawn upon a wealth of indigenous traditions. The book begins with a discussion of theories of the supernatural and the fantastic. It then looks at some of the first encounters of European and Native American supernatural beliefs and points to the common elements of these early traditions. The volume next focuses on American literature of the nineteenth century, which has a complex fusion of materialist biases and metaphysical fascinations. The final portion of the book gives greater attention to Spanish-American literature and the blending of the supernatural with attitudes of nostalgia and uncertainty.

From Little Dove Old Regular Baptist Church, up a hollow in the Appalachian Mountains, with its 25-member congregation, to the 18,000-strong Saddleback Valley Church in Lake Forest, California, where hymns appear on wide-screen projectors; and from Jerry Falwell, Jesse Helms, and Tim LaHaye to Martin Luther King Jr., Jesse Jackson, Bill Clinton, and Maya Angelou, Baptists are a study in contrasts. At first glance, Baptist theology seems classically Protestant in its emphasis on the Trinity, the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the authority of Scripture, salvation by faith alone, and baptism by immersion. Yet interpretation and implementation of these beliefs have made Baptists one of the most fragmented denominations in the United States. Indeed, they are often characterized as a people who "multiply by dividing." This book introduces readers to this fascinating and diverse denomination, offering a sociological portrait of a group numbering some thirty million members. Bill J. Leonard explores Baptist history, beliefs, practices and disputes, as well as contributions to American culture and the religious landscape. Leonard also discusses the major controversial issues within the denomination, including race, the interpretation of scripture, the role of women in the church, the separation of church and state, religion and politics, ethics, and sexuality. -- From publisher description.

A multicultural, multinational history of colonial America from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Internal Enemy and American Revolutions In the first volume in the Penguin History of the United States, edited by Eric Foner, Alan Taylor challenges the traditional story of colonial history by examining the many cultures that helped make America, from the native inhabitants from milennia past, through the decades of Western colonization and conquest, and across the entire continent, all the way to the Pacific coast. Transcending the usual Anglocentric version of our colonial past, he recovers the importance of Native American tribes, African slaves, and the rival empires of France, Spain, the Netherlands, and even Russia in the colonization of North America. Moving beyond the Atlantic seaboard to examine the entire continent, American Colonies reveals a pivotal period in the global interaction of peoples, cultures, plants, animals, and microbes. In a vivid narrative, Taylor draws upon cutting-edge scholarship to create a timely picture of the colonial world characterized by an interplay of freedom and slavery, opportunity and loss. "Formidable . . . provokes us to contemplate the ways in which residents of North America have dealt with diversity." -The New York Times Book Review

Native American Mythology began long before the European settlers arrived on North American soil. Contrary to popular beliefs, there is more to Native American Folklore than stories of buffalo hunts, teepee living and animal stories. Hundreds of tribes throughout North American created a huge mythological system that has rivaled that of the Greeks. Since the beginning of time every civilization has presented its own collection of strange tales and folklore. The Native American Indians are no different. Many of their stories included giants, hideous creatures, ghosts, beings from the spirit world, witches and many others. These creatures have haunted various corners of North America for thousands of years. The stories have been handed down from generation to generation. Some stories are amusing, while others are meant to be a terrifying lesson in life and contain eerie details and gruesome facts that will make your skin crawl. The stories collected in this book represent some of the best to be found. Many are about ghosts and their interaction with the living, some evil in nature while others appear quite normal. They teach a lesson that the dead don't automatically become ghosts. Many of the stories give a brief hint to an afterlife. While some ghosts go about their everyday lives in spirit form, and others attempt to come back from the other side. Some come back for revenge on the living.

"The dramatic growth of Christianity around the world in the last century has shifted the balance of power within the faith away from the traditional strongholds of Europe and the United States to the Global South. While we typically imagine Western missionaries carrying religion to the ends of the earth, David R. Swartz shows that the line of influence has often run the other way, as evangelicals in nations such as Korea, India, and Uganda shaped the American church from abroad. Swartz tells stories of evangelicals crossing national boundaries, offering new insights into a tradition that imagines itself as simultaneously American and part of a global communion"--

South America is a vast, relatively isolated, landmass that includes 12 independent countries and one region (Guyane Française) with diverse ethnic groups speaking hundreds of different languages and dialects, and extraordinary creativity. Indigenous people have occupied its different habitats while transforming the landscape and themselves, with extraordinary dedication and success. This dictionary opens a window to these peoples through many entries, in an integrated approach that allows to connect the multiple facets of indigenous life before 1492. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Ancient South America contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 700 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and the culture of ancient South America. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about ancient South America.

In Supernatural Entertainments, Simone Natale vividly depicts spiritualism’s rise as a religious and cultural phenomenon and explores its strong connection to the growth of the media entertainment industry in the nineteenth century. He frames the spiritualist movement as part of a new commodity culture that changed how public entertainments were produced and consumed. Starting with the story of the Fox sisters, considered the first spiritualist mediums in history, Natale follows the trajectory of spiritualism in Great Britain and the United States from its foundation in 1848 to the beginning of the twentieth century. He demonstrates that spiritualist mediums and leaders adopted many of the promotional strategies and spectacular techniques that were being developed for the broader entertainment industry. Spiritualist mediums were indistinguishable from other professional performers, as they had managers and agents, advertised in the press, and used spectacularism to draw audiences. Addressing the overlap between spiritualism’s explosion and nineteenth-century show business, Natale provides an archaeology of how the supernatural became a powerful force in the media and popular culture of today.