| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 95.4

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 95.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

New Territories, New Perspectives: The Religious Impact of the Louisiana Purchase. Ed. by Richard J. Callahan Jr. (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2008. x, 242 pp. $44.95, ISBN 978-0-8262-1784-4.)
In February 2004 the University of Missouri, Columbia, held a conference called "Moving Boundaries: American Religion(s) through the Louisiana Purchase." Rather than examining American history from an east-to-west perspective, participants explored the nation's narrative from the Gulf of Mexico northward. The discussion was varied and fascinating, leading Richard J. Callahan Jr. to include in this book nine of the papers given at the conference. What makes the book interesting is its topic. The Louisiana Purchase is not typically considered religious history, but as these essays indicate, religion is inextricably intertwined with both politics and culture, with long-term ramifications.	1
The book begins by exploring the big picture, the Louisiana territory as a whole. More specifically, it deals with the concept (or concepts) of destiny that drove Americans westward in the nineteenth century. Whether indicated by architecture or the presence of missionaries who inadvertently hitched their faith to an American star, religion played a distinct role in the absorption of the continent. In many cases, as the essayist Amanda Porterfield implies, it provided a welcome rationalization for conquest.	. . .

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