| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 94.2

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 94.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

In Pursuit of the Almighty's Dollar: A History of Money and American Protestantism. By James Hudnut-Beumler. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007. xx, 267 pp. $29.95, ISBN 978-0-8078-3079-6.)

This volume delivers both more and less than its title suggests. In the preface, James Hudnut- Beumler indicates his intention to "look at religious activity through economic lenses" (p. xi)—what he calls the "'if I would truly know a man I would rather look at his checkbook than his diary' school of historical inquiry" (p. xii). The book only partially fulfills that promise. Hudnut-Beumler explains that as his research unfolded "the most striking aspect of the story was the ever-changing but persistent rhetoric by which successive generations of clergy sought to raise the resources to support the ministries of their churches" (p. xiii). Drawing on sermons, essays, advice manuals, leaflets, posters, and other promotional materials, the book focuses more on the theological and practical arguments employed in fund-raising campaigns than on the ways churches managed their finances, set their budgets, or used their checkbooks. As Hudnut- Beumler puts it, "this is the history of a mentality across many years" (p. xiii).

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