Books

God's Marshall Plan

A new history exploring the transatlantic roots of Christian nationalism and globalism.

God's Marshall Plan tells the story of the American Protestants who sought to transform Germany into a new Christian and democratic nation in the heart of twentieth-century Europe. As American pastors, revivalists, diplomats, and spies crossed the Atlantic in an era of world war, they began to identify Europe as a continent in need of saving. Their call for political and spiritual intervention abroad ignited the fires of Christian nationalism back home, ultimately inspiring far-reaching campaigns to remake Germany in America's image. Yet as they struggled for Europe's soul, American Protestants came to realize they had developed vastly different visions for reconstructing their world out of the ruins of war. The conflict that followed forged two competing political theologies—Christian nationalism and Christian globalism—that definitively shaped American religion, politics, and diplomacy for decades to come.