Wetzel applied the “Page 99 Test” to his new book, American Crusade: Christianity, Warfare, and National Identity, 1860–1920, and reported the following:
Three quarters of page 99 in my book is a photograph of Theodore Roosevelt. The two sentences underneath describe a Gilded Age/Progressive Era religious periodical, The Outlook, and its consistent endorsement of American warfare.Learn more about American Crusade at the Cornell University Press website.
Because of the image on the page, unfortunately the Page 99 Test does not work for American Crusade. A browser who opened to page 99 might expect an extensive treatment of Roosevelt, when in fact he only appears in one chapter. The sentences describing religious support for American wars, however, would more helpfully hint at the book’s overall themes.
In fact, American Crusade: Christianity, Warfare, and National Identity, 1860-1920, is an in-depth treatment of how America’s Christian communities argued with each other about the righteousness of the Civil War, Spanish-American War, and World War I. The book focuses on mainline white Protestants—who often boldly championed the providential nature of the United States and its wars—but then contrasts their commentary with that of Christian groups on the margins of American life. African American Methodist commentary on the Civil War, Roman Catholic opinions on the Spanish-American War, and German-speaking Lutheran critiques of World War I offered perspectives that often differed sharply from the views of the nation’s white Protestant leadership. Overall, I argue that theological orientation combined with social position often determined one’s perspective on the righteousness of America and its wars. I also suggest that the three wars under consideration have a great deal in common and that historians should consider treating the period from 1860 to 1920 as a unit rather than as two or three separate eras.
The Page 99 Test: Theodore Roosevelt: Preaching from the Bully Pulpit.
--Marshal Zeringue
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