Thomas S. Kidd

American History by Thomas S. Kidd is a pretty brief overview over the history of the lands that is now the USA. Despite it's relative shortness over two volumes it gives a reasonable amount of details to the history of America, both before and after the founding of the country itself. These types of overviews are hard to write because the author has to become either really shallow or have some kind of focus where some topics gets a bit more attention. Kidd decides to have two areas of show more increased focus; the struggle for racial equity and the religious history of America. Apart from these two areas, the book is pretty standard in the way it focuses on presidents and major events. I thought the focus areas were well chosen, the focus on racial tensions is a must - especially given the recent rise of white nationalism. And for me it was interesting to read relatively much about the religious history of America because I knew next to nothing about it beside the really obvious stuff.

Personally I would have preferred a bit more discussion regarding sources, their credibility and different interpretations of them. I feel this is often a bit neglected in history books of more recent history, despite it possibly being even more important than books of ancient history (everyone and their cousin knows Livy is not historically accurate when he writes about Rome's founding for example - but it's not at all a given that we understand the context and nuances of a 19th century person just because it's infinitely closer to us than say Livy...). Anyway, I'm not saying Kidd completely lacks a discussion on sources, but he could have done more in this department in my opinion.

Kidd's style as a writer is pretty casual and it makes it an easy read.

One micro detail towards the end that had me so triggered I had to include it here: Kidd writes that Hillary Clinton won the primary in 2016 vs Bernie Sanders thanks to super delegates. This is obviously false! In the real world, Hillary handily won a majority both of the popular vote and of pledged delegates vs Sanders. If you remove super delegates from the equation, Hillary still had a super solid majority of delegates. This is one sentence towards the very end of the book, but it had me screaming!

Anyway, I really enjoyed American History by Thomas S. Kidd and if you want a relatively brief history of America without getting bogged down in a series of books that will take an infinity to complete - this is the book for you. If you want a more detailed account or if you don't like the focus areas Kidd has chosen, obviously look somewhere else. But for me it was a really good read.

I give this book 3/5. (Seriously, I would have given it 4/5 if not for the falsehood regarding how Hillary won vs Bernie, I hope there are not more inaccuracies in areas where I have no clue). show less

Thomas Kidd's The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America (Yale University Press, 2007) treats various aspects of what Kidd terms the first long Great Awakening, stretching from before Jonathan Edwards' 1734 Northampton revivals through approximately the end of the American Revolution. He argues that the early evangelical movement cannot be viewed as monolithic, but instead subject to deep internal struggles over the meaning of the movement's purposes, show more tactics and doctrines.

The first chapters of Kidd's book relate the earliest outbursts of evangelical fervor in New England, from ministerial calls for divine intervention in the 1670s to proto-revivals beginning in the 1710s, and the 1720-22 events in Connecticut which are generally considered the first publicized "awakenings." He provides well-written synopses of the efforts of Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield and other leaders of the revival movement, making the excellent point about Whitefield that while he generated significant excitement in most places he went, the movement had begun before he arrived on the scene. For those interested in print history (like me), Kidd throws in the fascinating tidbit that "works by or about Whitefield caused the number of printed texts produced in America to almost double between 1738 and 1741" (p. 47).

A middle section of The Great Awakening examines the deep and very meaningful rifts which emerged between radical and moderate evangelicals in the early 1740s and beyond. Among other things, Kidd notes, evangelicals clashed "over the role of exhorters and itinerants, the doctrine of assurance, the witness of the Spirit, ecstatic responses among laypeople, and the leveling effects of the revivals" (p. 155).

Finally, Kidd presents a series of chapters covering the Great Awakening's impact on Indians and African-Americans, as well as its course in Virginia and the Carolinas. He also has an important chapter evaluating the evangelical movement's importance to the American Revolution. He finds here as elsewhere that no universal conclusion is appropriate - some (perhaps a majority) within the evangelical movement supported the Revolution, while others remained loyal to the crown.

This is a clearly-written, well-researched and very readable book, with excellent endnotes for further reference. It is a necessary synthesis of the events comprising the first Great Awakening, and I'm sure it will stand the tests of historiographical time.

http://philobiblos.blogspot.com/2008/01/book-review-great-awakening.html show less

Baptists in America: A History by Thomas Kidd and Barry Hankins is a very thorough and accessible history of Baptists and both how the various branches have evolved and how they have been involved in shaping the United States.

The book presents a fairly well-rounded account, including both positive and negative events and ways of reacting to history. As expected when a history is written by practicing members of the organization under review, the negatives are far more selective than the show more positives. That said, this is far from being an uncritical history. The authors have done a commendable job of presenting many of the negatives, which is no easy task when talking about one's own belief system.

This should be read by any practicing Baptist to gain a better overall view of their history and how it is woven into American history. Non-Baptists will also gain a better perspective on those same topics and also give a more rounded view of the religion than they may have from the media dominance of fundamentalist strands of the Baptist religion.

Reviewed from an ARC made available by the publisher via NetGalley. show less

Evangelizing Muslims

In "American Christians and Islam," Thomas S. Kidd presents a scholarly historical survey of Christian proselytizing in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The book is roughly divided into the sections of: Barbary wars, Victorian era, middle-class reformers, Arab-Israeli crisis, modernity, postwar, and post 9-11.

The thesis of the book is that: American Christians' views about Islam usually divulge more about American Christians than about actual Muslims. Kidd attempts show more to show how a distorted vision of the Muslim world has led to unnecessary animosity between members of both faiths. Kidd does not attempt to show the Muslim point of view, but he is polemical against the prevailing Christian attitudes toward Islam and Muslims in general.

In particular, Kidd is primarily focused on the Christian idea that Islam was founded and propagated through a doctrine of violence, ie. jihad. That Islam was spread throughout the world by the sword. Misconceptions, for example, that the Turkish slaughter of Armenians was religiously based.

Another theological theme that Kidd explores throughout are the Christian eschatological beliefs that have been misinterpreted to view Islam as the anathema of Christ. Such literal views of Revelations in the Bible have fundamental Christians believing in the establishment of Israel to end the Jewish diaspora and the Judgement Day when Christians will defeat Muslims forever the second coming of Christ will appear.

While Kidd is impressive in the depth he covers. I do however feel that some parts are under-explored or missing altogether. For instance, popular Christian misconceptions about Islam as intolerant of women is scantily mentioned by Kidd. Though not in a evangelical sense, but the Orientalism of Cold War social scientists in the proliferation of area-studies, which have included the Middle-east, is all but ignored. Bernard Lewis, Emeritus of Princeton, the most famous of which, is never even mentioned.

If you are really interested in a more detailed book on Protestant missionaries in the Middle East, I highly recommend "Artillery of Heaven: American Missionaries and the Failed Conversion of the Middle East" by Ussama Makdisi. That is not to say that "American Christians and Islam" is not important or not any good, but that "Artillery of Heaven" presents more depth with which the analysis can draw its conclusions from. show less