Description: The Third Disestablishment examines the formative period in the development of church-state law and the rise and decline of church-state separation as a legal construct and a cultural value.
Review Quotes: "The idea of church-state separation might be considered the quintessential American cultural norm, but this book reveals the manifold interpretations and applications of that supposed norm in everyday American life." -- Ana Self Schuber, The University of Alabama, Religious Studies Review
"The completion of this latest volume places Green's achievements on par with other defining works of church-state history.... The sum of The Third Establishment's cogent, multifaceted argument is that separationism was neither a precisely defined concept nor directed exclusively at Catholics. It embodied a diffuse, secularizing current in American culture which, when paired with the pluralistic impulses of the Civil Rights era, collapsed under the weight of its contradictions. Nonetheless, it defined American jurisprudence for decades. And no one has done a better job of illuminating its twentieth-century history than Steven Green." -- Church History"Green's account of Church-State issues in the mid-twentieth century is comprehensive, coherent and compelling. Based on extensive research in primary sources and brimming with astute analysis, The third disestablishment greatly enhances our understanding of the relationship between America's government and its religious institutions and communities." -- Gary Scott Smith, Grove City College, Pennsylvania, Journal of Ecclesiastical History"It is impossible, in such short space, to do justice to what is easily one of the most important books on the postwar religion cases to appear in many years." -- John W. Compton, Chapman University, Journal of Church and State"Green argues persuasively that previous studies have either missed or mischaracterized crucial aspects of the story. His revisionist reading of the material is both subtle and profoundâ. easily one of the most important books on the postwar religion cases to appear in many years." -- Journal of Church and State "Recommended." -- S.B. Lichtman, CHOICE"Yet another sterling effort by one of America's leading historians of religious liberty. Having taken us from colonial times to World War I in three previous volumes, Steven Green now traces the rise and fall of church-state separation ideals in American law and culture in the twentieth century. He combines careful legal analysis of familiar First Amendment cases with a novel account of the escalating cultural wars over separatist ideals waged in religious, political, academic, advocacy, and media circles alike. Here is a compelling and authoritative story, well and wistfully told."--John Witte, Jr., Director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion, Emory University"Steven Green is the Charles Dickens of American religious disestablishment--the preeminent chronicler of the characters, movements, ideas, and decisions that have shaped church-state relations in the US. This volume, the latest installment in his oeuvre, brings the tale into the 1950s, the era of high judicial disestablishment. It should be required reading for anyone who care about religious liberty and its history."--Noah R. Feldman, author of The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President