Bounds of Their Habitation: Race and Religion in American History

Harvey, professor and chair of the department of history at the University of Colorado, follows up his 2016 Christianity and Race in the American South: A History with an excellent second survey of race and American Christianity. He expands the focus, taking in not only relations between African-Americans and Christianity, but also the Hispanic and Native American experiences; it would have been nice to see Harvey spend more time elaborating on his Mexican-American and Native American sources. He takes a broad chronological view, opening with a consideration of the relations between 18th-century Christian churches, both Protestant and Catholic, and slave, Mexican, and tribal populations, and moving along quite rapidly to an examination of late 20th-century liberation theology, with a brief mention of the Black Lives Matter movement. He also offers an essay-style “Note on Sources,” dividing his bibliographic survey by chapter for ease of reference. This book will be comfortably accessible to the general reader but should interest the scholar as well. Throughout this informative history, Harvey displays excellent handling of his sources and is at ease with the more theoretical aspects of his topic. (Nov.)