In the early twentieth century America witnessed the emergence of a new form of political, social, and religious leader: the Christian anticommunist crusader. Crusaders fused patriotism, capitalism, conservative politics, theories of race and gender, and old-timey religion behind the façade of anticommunism. Crusaders believed themselves to be warriors in a cosmic battle between good and evil. Engaged in a social, political, economic, and religious war, they organized a militant campaign to drive out the influences of “godless communism” that they believed were threatening America. Politicians, businessmen, and religious leaders willingly adopted the title of “crusader” as a marker of their commitment to American liberty and opposition to communism. Each individual highlighted in this work adopted the title of “crusader.” Coalescing in a global crusade against communism, a network of crusaders and special interests produced a crusade aesthetic that haunted American culture well into the latter-half of the twentieth century. By surveying a diverse cast of anticommunists not often associated with one another, this project illustrates the complex, and often time incongruous, racially charged make-up of the crusade for Christ and against communism. The project analyzes the networks of Catholic radio priest Charles Coughlin, “hillbilly-type evangelist” Billy James Hargis, evangelical standard-bearer Billy Graham, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Ezra Taft Benson, and Black Panther Party Minister of Information Eldridge Cleaver. Instead of focusing exclusively on the intellectual productions, political alliances, or theological boundaries of these figures, this project focuses on their unifying aesthetic. Through the study of crusade aesthetics, this project expands the boundaries of the “Religious Right” and American conservatism by identifying the unifying meanings, sentiments, values, and varied principles that haunted American culture in the twentieth century. Knowledge, subjects, and objects are drawn together without necessarily being centered. The crusade, understood as a set of values, materials, and performance, is the aesthetic referenced throughout. As each chapter demonstrates, the crusade is accompanied by material traits of expression, the effects of which multiply as the crusade is imagined, produced, and performed. By untangling the frameworks of the crusade aesthetic, this project illustrates how the variation demonstrated in the diversity of crusaders is not a signal for separation, but evidence of the pervasive power of the aesthetic itself. Analyzing the aesthetics of the crusade broadens the historical categories while allowing room for the messy nature of history to unfold in a manner that demonstrates just how pervasive the crusade really was, or is. This project demonstrates the manner in which the crusade is the product of and unifying force throughout a chaotic assemblage of religion, politics, economics, maintaining distinct categories of race, gender and class. Though the crusade aesthetic assumed varied forms throughout the twentieth century there are five consistent principles that guide the crusade: “conservative” political and economic interest, anti-authoritarianism, the traditional white Christian-American family, a moral citizen subject, and a weaponized milieu of emotion (including fear, anger, sadness, trust/distrust, longing for community, nostalgia, anticipation of the “end times,” and others). Disseminated in mass via empires of print, television, radio, spoken word, interpersonal communication, and other material means, the crusade positioned itself at the center of conservative Christianity and politics. It united a tangled web of seemingly disparate persons, politics, economics, and intellectual trends by effacing difference under the banner of a Christian crusade against communism. Moreover, the crusade produced a cultural environment that defined what it meant to be a “true” Christian and American. Finally, the crusade motivated Americans to take personal action in defense of a Christian America founded squarely upon a divinely ordained capitalist economy. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Religion in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2019. / April 15, 2019. / Includes bibliographical references. / John Corrigan, Professor Directing Dissertation; G. Kurt Piehler, University Representative; Michael J. McVicar, Committee Member; Jamil W. Drake, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_709340 |
| Contributors | Wells, Daniel Eugene (author), Corrigan, John (Professor Directing Dissertation), Piehler, G. Kurt (University Representative), McVicar, Michael J. (Committee Member), Drake, Jamil William (Committee Member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Arts and Sciences (degree granting college), Department of Religion (degree granting departmentdgg) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text, doctoral thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (421 pages), computer, application/pdf |
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