This collection is primarily intended for classroom use, but its content and organisation will make it useful for all who are interested in American religious history. Unlike most readers, which are organised in strictly chronological fashion and which reprint existing essays, this volume combines topical with chronological principles and consists of sixteen new pieces. Within four chronological sections – ‘Exploration and encounter’ (1492–1692), ‘The Atlantic world’ (1692–1803), American empire (1803–98) and Global reach (1898–present day) – essays explore American religion in terms of four different themes. The essays on ‘politics’ focus on Church-State relations. Essays on ‘cosmology’ look at issues of religious worldview and ideas. ‘Community’ deals with the ways in which believers of various faiths organised themselves into defined communities. The last theme, ‘practice’, explores themes of lived religion – the communal and individual practices of piety. Essays dealing with the period of colonisation are noteworthy for including non-English religious groups, including the French and Spanish, and Native Americans. Native Americans also appear in essays in the second chronological period. While some will point to themes or movements that are excluded, that is inevitable in any collection of this nature. Such shortcomings are more than overcome by the fresh insights of these predominantly younger scholars, and the new analytical approaches that they employ. At a time when the role of faith and belief in American life is receiving renewed attention, this is a valuable introduction to the nation's religious heritage.