1Published in 1980, Fundamentalism in American Culture by George Marsden is considered a classic and influential text on American religion and the historical roots and development of evangelical fundamentalism in the United States in the early twentieth century. According to Marsden, “Fundamentalism is best defined” as “militantly antimodernist Protestant evangelicalism” (2). Furthermore, Marsden observed that “Fundamentalism was a movement in the sense of a tendency or development in Christian thought” (2). In delving into the rich reservoir of the social, intellectual, political, and religious aspirations of fundamentalism and the cultural landscape that shaped and informed adherents of this Protestant tradition in the early twentieth century, Marsden provided a historical account of the relationship between American culture and the fundamentalist movement. At the end of this work, Marsden offers his insights into the question of “what happened to American fundamentalism?” in the decades after the 1920s (vii).

2In attempting to arrive at an answer to the question, Marsden published two updated editions to his original work, Fundamentalism in American Culture. In 2005, a second edition of this work appeared in print with an additional preface and fifth chapter, “Fundamentalism Yesterday and Today” (287). This additional chapter succinctly discusses fundamentalism’s “deep involvement in mainstream national politics” since the 1970s (288). This segment of the book provides a useful intellectual and political genealogy of changes within fundamentalism across the long historical arch of the twentieth century and provides useful points of reference for the features and characteristics associated with different iterations of fundamentalism, evangelicalism, and premillennialism in the twentieth century.

3The third edition of Fundamentalism in American Culture is the subject of this review. This version of Marsden’s text included all the aforementioned content along with an updated conclusion that delves into fundamentalism in the twenty first century and its place in American culture, society, and politics. This concluding chapter provides a nuanced interpretation of the negative view of fundamentalism that emerged in American culture after 9/11. It also offered a comparative discussion of the features of American culture in the 1920s and today alongside the political role and function of fundamentalism in these respective eras. Marsden’s work is compelling and necessary for those that seek to understand and explore the appeal and meaning of fundamentalism among white Americans. From this respective, Fundamentalism in American Culture is an intellectual and religious history of an idea, movement, and concept. Marsden is less successful in providing any substantive discussion of race as factor and element in the development of fundamentalism as a cultural force in American society. None the less, Fundamentalism in American Culture provides a robust historical account of the origins and maturation process of fundamentalism and the issues that shaped it along with the ideas and attitudes that informed the views, opinions, and politics of American fundamentalists.