This is a magisterial work that will serve as a key reference for our understanding of disestablishment in the United States, which as the authors note is a singular American contribution to ideas and practices of modern governance. It is impossible to see the American constitutional heritage in the same way after reading this book; it shifts the paradigm. Moreover, by setting the record straight this work has immediate relevance for legal debates and court judgments about the meaning of the no establishment principle in American jurisprudence. It demolishes myths about our founding that continue to shape, or warp, constitutional thinking and legal judgments." —Allen D. Hertzke, University of Oklahoma, editor of Religious Freedom in America: Constitutional Roots and Contemporary Challenges
