American Blindspot

Gerardo Martí is L. Richardson King Professor of Sociology at Davidson College. Active in several research collaborations, he publishes broadly on religion and social change. His book, The Deconstructed Church: Understanding Emerging Christianity, was awarded the 2015 Distinguished Book Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.

• Preface Chapter 1: The Unexpected President: The 2016 Trump Election and White Evangelical Support Chapter 2: Deep Cultural Background on Racial Inequality: Slavery and Territorial Expansion in Early America Chapter 3: Racialized Power and Constraints of Freedom after Slavery: Failure of Reconstruction Chapter 4: A “True American” Identity: Immigration and the Restriction of Citizenship Chapter 5: Business-Friendly Evangelicalism: Theological Turn of Mid-Twentieth-Century Christianity Chapter 6: The Establishment of Free-Market Conservatism: Religious Imperatives of Regan-Era Economics Chapter 7: Reactionary Politics of the Tea Party: Barack Obama and His Critics Chapter 8: Increased Concentration of Elite Wealth through Asset Growth: The 2007 Market Collapse and the Rule of Finance Chapter 9: Identity Politics and Evangelical Support: Trump’s White Christian Nationalism Chapter 10: Conclusion: Ethnoreligious Structures of Inequality in the Trump PresidencyNotes Bibliography

This book is not about President Trump’s personality or his tweets. Rather, it traces the role of race, economic power, and Christianity over centuries in the US to reveal the historical trends that led to Trump’s victory. Martí (Davidson College) emphasizes scholarly sources with a fresh take to explore history that is “not hidden but neglected” (p. 21). Chapters on race cover not only African Americans but also Native Americans, Mexicans, and both Asian and European immigrants. Another important line of analysis concerns the blending of free market capitalism with evangelical Christianity—business-friendly evangelism and Christian libertarianism. That analysis nicely sets up a discussion of elites' wealth and the intellectual development of neoliberalism. . . Ultimately, Martí finds that, despite Trump’s positioning himself as an outsider to politics, his policies are consistent with longstanding racial, economic, and religious structures. . . Martí paints a vivid (if sometimes depressing) picture that will likely fill in the blind spots of most readers' understanding of the US. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.