Daniel K. Williams

Provocative and insightful, Defenders of the Unborn is a must-read for anyone who craves a deeper understanding of a highly-charged issue"--

The Pro-life Movement Before Roe V. Wade

Defenders of the Unborn

Abortion and America’s Churches explores the surprising history of how American Christians think about abortion.

Many people assume that Christians have steadfastly condemned abortion throughout the United States’s history. Daniel K. Williams overthrows all assumptions about the unity, consistency, or simplicity of American Christian thought and belief in this groundbreaking new book. He demonstrates that churches in the United States have fought among themselves and with the wider culture as they developed and enforced their stance on abortion, revealing major struggles to define their often-changing positions. Far from a cynical exercise of political interest, changes and disagreements arose from serious theological considerations informed by each tradition’s approach to the faith. These theological shifts—and corresponding shifts in interreligious political alliances—led to the changing fortunes of Roe v. Wade.

By capturing the fascinating and complicated history informing each faith’s position, Abortion and America’s Churches restores much-needed context to the sharp polarization over abortion today.

A Religious History of “Roe v. Wade”

Abortion and America’s Churches

Laura Jane Gifford

This volume offers a new perspective on American conservatism in the 1960s and the way in which the changes of the decade shaped the development of American politics for the next half-century. Historians have increasingly begun to view the sixties as a decade of conservatism, and a spate of landmark books in the field have traced the careers of Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George Wallace. Much, however, is still unknown about the growth of the conservative movement during this decade. In their effort to chronicle the national politicians and organizations that led the movement, previous histories of conservatism neglected to examine lesser-known developments—local perspectives, the role of religion, transnational dimensions—that help to give clues to conservatism's enduring influence in American politics. The contributions here provide a synthesis of cutting-edge scholarship that addresses those overlooked developments and offers new insights into the way that the 1960s shaped the trajectory and contributed to the political power of postwar conservatism.

Reexamining Conservatism's Decade of Transformation

The Right Side of the Sixties

In God's Own Party, Daniel K. Williams presents the first comprehensive history of the Christian Right, uncovering how evangelicals came to see the Republican Party as the vehicle through which they could reclaim America as a Christian nation.

The Making of the Christian Right

God's Own Party

The 1960s were a transformative era for American politics, but much is still unknown about the growth of conservatism during the period when it was radically reshaped and became the national political force that it is today. In their efforts to chronicle the national politicians and organizations that led the movement, previous histories have often neglected local perspectives, the role of religion, transnational exchange, and other aspects that help to explain conservatism's enduring influence in American politics. Taken together, the contributions gathered here offer a cutting-edge synthesis that incorporates these overlooked developments and provides new insights into the way that the 1960s shaped the trajectory of postwar conservatism.

Daniel K. Williams

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