This book is, for the most part, a rendition of thought and opinion among Evangelical Protestant leaders and activists on the subject of non-Protestant immigrants to America during the long nineteenth century. The author has combed a variety of sources to illumine the thinking and advocating by clergy and other leaders of the Evangelical Movement. The point of what they wrote about and advocated, indeed lamented, was the influx of non-Protestant immigrants after about 1840. What those writers advocated was the stopping, or at least the slowing, of immigrants from places from which the transit of culture would, in their view, corrupt American society and its values. A very clear picture emerges from the sources that the author abundantly quotes that for America to be America it had to be Protestant. But, if it could not be truly Protestant in a churchly sense then the non-Protestant immigrants had to be Americanized (read Protestantized) by the public schools and by legislation that would regulate Sabbath observance and the use of alcohol.
That is the key to understanding William Phalen's intent in this book. Following McLoughlin and Handy the author says that because Evangelicals were massively influential in creating and minding American culture, what they thought and did is of prime importance. But, as the author stresses, the actions of Evangelical Protestants were not solely or merely “religious” in the conventional sense of that word. Rather, the Protestants believed it was their calling not only to convert the lost—although surely that—but to establish and maintain a righteous nation, which, depending on varied definitions of the millennium, could be a harbinger of no less than the kingdom of God.
The new immigrants after about 1840 found this set of values confusing, even oppressive. First it was the Irish, and then Germans, who came in large numbers. A generation later they were followed by an equally massive number of Italians, along with a sizeable contingent from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as well as other parts of southern and eastern Europe. The social conflict turned on several issues. The first to be encountered was alcohol. For the mostly Catholic immigrants, consuming alcohol was a natural part of everyday life. Soon, in Paul Johnson's lovely phrase [though curiously, his classic work on Rochester is not used here] drink became “an angry badge” of distinction between mainstream and immigrant parallel societies. Then there was Sabbath observance. This was important to Protestants for obvious religious reasons but also for reasons of civic responsibility. For many of the immigrants, this was puzzling and annoying. For them, to have a picnic in the park on a Sunday afternoon, when one could play games with the children, and have a glass of beer or wine, seemed like a good thing to do after Mass. But most importantly the issue that divided the American Evangelicals and the immigrants was the public school. The author, wisely in my view, spends a lot of time on this issue.
The school was, according to the Protestant self-appointed leaders of American culture, the main battle ground for the hearts and minds of future generations. In the schools, both the children of native-born Protestants and of recent immigrants would be socialized into correct thinking and virtuous behavior by a combination of civics, the Bible, and the McGuffey reader. At the core of the controversy between the schools and the Catholic Church was what version of the bible was to be used. Moreover, the Church, by 1900 the largest denomination, wanted to given its own moral instruction to its children. In the end, the reaction of the Church to Protestant imperialism in the schools was to build its own vast system of schools tied to the parishes. Thus an early version of the culture wars continued well beyond the immigration restrictions imposed by Protestant politicians in the 1920s.
To repeat, Phalen creatively sees the desire to restrict immigration as more than merely a religious matter, narrowly defined. Rather, rightly in my view, the author presents the Protestants the way they saw themselves, as guardians of society. For them, with God calling them to establish a righteous republic in America, the stakes were very high. For them—in schools, in “blue” laws, in prohibition, and in immigration restriction—it was all about doing the right thing. For the largely Catholic immigrants (and Jews caught in the middle of these intra-Christian disputes) it was all about diminishing them, their values, their church, and their culture. In all, then, the author portrays well this sad and still unresolved story (see the Tea Party).
Some criticisms of this book are necessary. The strength of the book is its weakness. The author is to be congratulated for ferreting out all manner of sources to illumine Evangelical Protestant opinion. Readers will be rewarded by paying attention to this. But, the author seems too close to his sources, quoting more than he should and interpreting less than he might; and, he does too much block quoting. Indeed, a majority of the chapters—even the conclusion—end with a block quote, when the subject cries out for analysis.
Further, I wonder when this book was written. The bibliography has but few references to books published in the last twenty years. Moreover, the author attempts a book on Evangelicals without much engagement with the scholars who, in the past quarter century, have made Evangelicalism a mainstream subject in American history. There is little discussion of the work of, for example, George Marsden, Mark Noll, Nathan Hatch, Randall Balmer, Joel Carpenter, Harry Stout, Thomas Kidd, William Trollinger, and Paul Spickard. Indeed, when a few of the above are named in the text, we find in the endnotes that the source of the discussion is derived from Samuel Huntington. This seems odd for a book published in 2011. Nevertheless, this book can still be read with profit, especially for the sources which the author has helpfully located for future scholars who might be working on issues of diversity.
