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gender history

On John Wilsey’s review of Kristin Kobes Du Mez’s Jesus and John Wayne

John Fea   |  February 11, 2022

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary church historian John Wilsey recently took a shot at Kristin Kobes Du Mez’s Jesus and John Wayne in a review published at a conservative website called Ad Fontes. Though Wilsey shows much more empathy than some...

A critique of “Jesus and John Wayne”

John Fea   |  January 27, 2021

If social media is any indication, everyone loves Kristin Kobes Du Mez’s book Jesus and John Wayne. The praise is merited. It’s a strong book that says things about the recent history of American evangelicalism that should have been said...

When Canadian Methodists erased women evangelists from their history

John Fea   |  September 28, 2020

Check out historian Scott McLaren‘s interesting piece at Borealia, a blog about early Canadian history. McLaren, the author of Pulpit, Press, and Politics: Methodists and the Market for Books in Upper Canada, explores the ways early Methodist historians erased “the...

The Author’s Corner with Jessica Marie Johnson

Annie Thorn   |  August 10, 2020

Jessica Marie Johnson is Assistant Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University. This interview is based on her new book, Wicked Flesh: Black Women, Intimacy, and Freedom in the Atlantic World (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020). JF: What led you to write Wicked...

The Author’s Corner with Allison Fredette

Annie Thorn   |  May 18, 2020

Allison Fredette is Assistant Professor of History at Appalachian State University. This interview is based on her new book, Marriage on the Border: Love, Mutuality, and Divorce in the Upper South during the Civil War (The University Press of Kentucky, 2020)....

Pro-Trump Evangelical: “When you look at the women who were literally scratching the doors of the Supreme Court building and pounding the doors, it was like someone having a tantrum when they couldn’t get their way…”

John Fea   |  November 15, 2019

Michael Brown, a pro-Trump radio pundit, recently appeared on court evangelical Steven Strang‘s podcast and talked about the attempts to impeach Donald Trump .  The title of the podcast is “Are Demonic Spirits Influencing the Trump Impeachment Process.”  (I am...

Kate Bowler on Evangelical Women Celebrities

John Fea   |  October 2, 2019

Duke Divinity School’s Kate Bowler keeps churning out books.  Her latest is The Preacher’s Wife: The Precarious Power of Evangelical Women Celebrities. Over at Christianity Today, Liberty University’s Karen Swallow Prior interviews Bowler about her new book. Here is a taste: Despite...

The Author’s Corner With Kelly Ryan

John Fea   |  August 8, 2019

Kelly A. Ryan is Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Professor of History at Indiana University-Southeast.  This interview is based on her new book Everyday Crimes: Social Violence and Civil Rights in Early America (New York University Press, 2019). JF:...

Did Men Invent “Likability?”

John Fea   |  May 11, 2019

Check out historian Claire Potter‘s piece at The New York Times: “Men Invented ‘Likability.’ Guess Who Benefits.”  She reflects on the origins of the idea of “likability”  advertising culture and, eventually presidential politics. As Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar and...

The Author’s Corner with James Broomall

Annie Thorn   |  March 11, 2019

James Broomall is Director of the George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War and Assistant Professor of History at Shepherd University. This interview is based on his new book, Private Confederacies: The Emotional Worlds of Southern...

Billy Sunday

John Fea   |  January 22, 2019

I used to have a friend who occasionally wore a t-shirt with a picture of Billy Sunday and the caption “Evangelical with an Attitude.” (Hi Fred!). I thought about my friend and his shirt when I read Liva Gerson’s latest...

Gender History at #AHA19

John Fea   |  January 3, 2019

Over at Perspectives on History, Colgate University historian Monica Mercado “takes stock” of gender history at this weekend’s annual meeting of the American Historical Association.  Here is a taste: More than 30 years after Joan Scott first argued for gender as...

Male Authoritarianism and the Southern Baptists

John Fea   |  July 16, 2018

R. Marie Griffith directs the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis.  Some of you may remember our interview with her in Episode 32 of The Way of Improvement Leads Home Podcast. During...

Author’s Corner with Leigh Fought

John Fea   |  July 5, 2018

Leigh Fought is Associate Professor of History at LeMoyne College.  This interview is based on her book Southern Womanhood and Slavery: A Biography of Louisia S. McCord, due out in paperback in September 2018 with University of Missouri Press. JF: What...

Author’s Corner with Elisabeth Ceppi

John Fea   |  July 2, 2018

Elisabeth Ceppi is Associate Professor of English at Portland State University.  This interview is based on her new book Invisible Masters: Gender, Race, and the Economy of Service in Early New England (Dartmouth University Press, 2018). JF: What led you to write Invisible...

Mary Beth Norton on Women in Academe

John Fea   |  April 6, 2018

Norton is the president of the American Historical Association and Mary Donlon Alger Professor of American History at Cornell University.   She reflects on her experience as a woman in the academy in a Chronicle of Higher Education article titled “The Awakening: Women...

The Author’s Corner with Amanda Izzo

John Fea   |  March 19, 2018

Amanda Izzo is an assistant professor in the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies at Saint Louis University. This interview is based on her new book, Liberal Christianity and Women’s Global Activism: The YWCA of the USA and the Maryknoll Sisters (Rutgers...

Mary Beth Norton Was the First Historian to Use the Word “Gender” in *The William and Mary Quarterly*

John Fea   |  February 8, 2018

The phrase “African American” was not used in the WMQ until 1999. Check out Michael McDonnell‘s piece at Panorama on the William and Mary Quarterly‘s searchable index.  For those of you unfamiliar with the William and Mary Quarterly, it is the premier journal of...

The Author’s Corner with Ashley Baggett

John Fea   |  November 10, 2017

Ashley Baggett is assistant professor of History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies at North Dakota State University. This interview is based on her new book, Intimate Partner Violence in New Orleans: Gender, Race, and Reform, 1840-1900 (University Press of Mississippi, 2017).  JF: What led...

What Happens When You Teach a Graduate Seminar on “Women, Gender, and Sex in U.S. Religious History” to a Class That is Over 85% Men?

John Fea   |  May 11, 2017

Andrea Turpin, a history professor at Baylor University, reflects on such an experience in a recent post at The Anxious Bench.  She uses her observations from this graduate seminar, as well as her experience teaching an undergraduate class on women...

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“Turns out the Roman Catholic Church has nothing on the Southern Baptists when it comes to covering up sexual misconduct”

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What we have said about guns and gun control over the years

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On abortion, the Trump court evangelicals need the Supreme Court. On gun violence, all they have are “thoughts and prayers.”

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Episode 37: “Christian Trumpism Before Trump”

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A lot has changed since Brian Kemp and Stacey Abrams met in the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial race

May 27, 2022 By John Fea

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