| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 91.2

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 173 words from this article are provided below; about 513 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 91.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Hellfire Nation: The Politics of Sin in American History. By James A. Morone. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003. xiv, 575 pp. Cloth, $35.00, ISBN 0-300-09484-1.)
Liberalism, according to the standard account of U.S. political history, has fostered free markets, limited government, and the sovereign rights of the individual. The resulting momentum toward a purely liberal society is held in check, however, the story goes, by a strain of communitarianism in the American character—a robust commitment to the collective life, which is given expression in social movements, labor unions, churches and synagogues, and other voluntary associations of civil society.	1
James A. Morone, a political scientist at Brown University, believes that this familiar interpretive framework is inadequate. "Liberal political history," he argues, "underestimates the roaring moral fervor at the soul of American politics" (p. 7). Not infrequently, the liberal state, hijacked by this or that moral crusade, has faltered: particular minority communities have been targeted, their constitutional safeguards skirted, and their rights, properties, and even lives taken away.	. . .

There are about 513 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.