This classic work, winner of the 1973 National Book Award in Philosophy and Religion andChristian Century'schoiceas the Religious Book of the Decade (1979), is now issued with a new chapter by noted religious historian David Hall, who carries the story of American religious history forward to the present day. Praise for the earlier edition: "An unusual and praiseworthy book. . . . It takes a modern, almost anthropological view of history, in which worship is a part of a web of culture along with play, love, dress, and language."B.A. Weisberger,Washington Post Book World "The most detailed, most polished of the works in its tradition."Martin E. Marty,New York Times Book Review "An intellectual delight that one does not so much read as savor."America "The definitive one-volume study by the leading authority."Christianity Today "No one writing or thinking hereafter about America's past will be able to ignore Ahlstrom's magisterial account of the religious element."American Historical Review

Sydney E. Ahlstrom, an eminent scholar of the history of religious thought in America, taught at Yale University for more than thirty years and held the Samuel Knight Chair in American History and Modern Religious History at the time of his death in 1984 David D. Hall is Bartlett Professor of New England Church History at Harvard Divinity School