Catherine L. Albanese is the J. F. Rowny Distinguished Professor Emerita in Comparative Religions at the University of California, Santa Barbara. A former president of the American Academy of Religion, she is the author of numerous books, including A Republic of Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion (2007) and The Delight Makers: Anglo-American Metaphysical Religion and the Pursuit of Happiness (2023).

• Introduction: How Do You Dream America?1. First Peoples: The World Before and After2. Cracking the Epistemological Code: Black and Latinx Re-Visions of US Religious History3. The Scent of Spirit; Or, What Caused the Great Awakening, and Was There One Anyway?4. The Religions of the American Revolution and Why They Matter5. When Is God’s Time? Religious Clock-Watching in the Nineteenth-Century United States6. Hiding in Plain View: The New Nineteenth-Century Religious Woman7. From Methodism to Mind Cure: The Evangelical Origins of New Thought8. Mormons in the Former and the Latter Day9. Elephants in the Room: Catholics and Jews in Protestant AmericaAfterword: On DreamscapesAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex

A masterclass in historiographical argument, Kaleidoscope breaks apart familiar categories and received wisdom to essay new, dynamic strategies for understanding American religious history. Catherine Albanese takes readers beyond the pervasive structures of whiteness, pointing instead to the shifts, currents, and pluralism that have always been part of our heritage of belief—and that remain vital today.