American Zion: The Old Testament as a Political Text from the Revolution to the Civil War

Shalev, a history professor at Haifa University, convincingly demonstrates how the language of the Hebrew Bible was pervasive in political culture and politics during the creation of America and in its earliest years. The identification of the U.S. as a new Israel circulated in political discourse, speeches, pamphlets, private correspondence, sermons, poetry, and newspapers, providing Americans with critical perspectives on Britain’s management of the colonies and invoking biblical sanction for nation-building. At times, the use of biblical language channeled anxiety about whether America’s union might falter like that of ancient Israel. Deists such as Franklin and Jefferson imagined the revolution as an Exodus-like deliverance from slavery. Books described George Washington as the American Gideon who was able to defeat an enemy, despite being outnumbered and having fewer resources. Early Americans theorized that American Indians were remnants of the Lost Ten Tribes to make sense of them in their world view. During the Civil War, this “pseudobiblicism,” as Shalev calls it, morphed into a language of mission and lost cause. Shalev’s analysis shows how Old Testament biblical language, particularly the idea of chosenness, lingers in contemporary political discourse. (Mar.)