Spirits of Empire

Know about the book -

Spirits of Empire is written by Tisa Wenger and published by . It's available with International Standard Book Number or ISBN identification 1469693623 (ISBN 10) and 9781469693620 (ISBN 13).

The Declaration of Independence depicted Native Americans as bloodthirsty savages, and from its founding the United States aimed to expand westward by seizing Indigenous lands. While white settlers saw these conquests as victories for true religion, native people invoked the spirits in their own defense. Some claimed the powers of Christianity, while others drew on the English-language concept of religion to redefine their own ancestral traditions. As all sorts of people struggled to make their way within this new empire, a broad variety of new religious movements emerged. In this groundbreaking book, historian Tisa Wenger shows how the history of American religion unfolded on these settler colonial foundations. The imperatives of US empire, she argues, shaped the category and traditions of what we know as religion. Wenger also introduces the concept of settler secularism to explain how white settlers defined and managed religion in their own image, in order to facilitate their own rule. She shows how the concept of religion--whether as a special thing that requires protection or a mark of the primitive that must be transcended--has most often served the interests of those in power. Ultimately, settler colonialism organized American religion and created religious hierarchies that still influence the United States today.