The Book Prize Index

The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America

Frances FitzGerald

Initially a populist rebellion against the established Protestant churches, evagelicalism became the dominant religious force in the country before the Civil War, but the northerners and southerners split over the issue of slavery. After the Civil War, the northern evangelicals split, eventually causing a conflict between fundamentalists and modernists. Only after the Second World War would conservative evangelicalism gain momentum, thanks in large part to Billy Graham's countrywide revivals. FitzGerald shows how the conflict between religious conservatives and others led to national culture wars and a Southern Republican stronghold, and how a new generation of evangelicals is challenging the Christian right by preaching social justice and the common good.

HistoryAmerican History · medium confidenceAmerican History81 signalsLlm Classifier: American History -> American HistoryKeyword Classifier: American History -> American HistoryKeyword Classifier: Religion -> ReligionEvangelicalism & Christian Nationalism

Award History

1 wins · 5 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
National Book Critics Circle Award for NonfictionMajor2017WinnerSecondary source
National Book Award for NonfictionMajor2017FinalistSecondary source
Cundill History PrizeMajor2017LonglistSecondary source
Mark Lynton History Prize2018FinalistSecondary source
Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History2017FinalistSecondary source
View all award history (5)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

    These suggestions did not meet the normal display threshold and are more likely to be wrong.

    • Billy Graham62%

  2. 02 Central places

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

    These suggestions did not meet the normal display threshold and are more likely to be wrong.

    • America45%

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    Religious conservatives’ conflicts with others helped drive national culture wars and a Southern Republican stronghold, while a later generation of evangelicals challenged the Christian right through social-justice and common-good preaching.

    Model confidence 68%

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    38 / 100 academic

    Serious trade

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 74%.