"Apostles of Fascism," "Communist Clergy," and the UAW: Political Ideology and Working-Class Religion in Detroit, 1919-1945

• Published in: The Journal of American history (Bloomington, Ind.) Ind.), 2012-09, Vol.99 (2), p.440-465
• Main Author: Pehl, Matthew
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 20th century; African Americans; American history; Catholicism; Christianity; Communism; Fascism; Ideology; Immigrants; Industrial development; Judaism; Labor unions; Pastors; Political discourse; Politics; Religion; United States history
• ISSN: 0021-8723; 1936-0967; 1945-2314
• DOI: 10.1093/jahist/jas261

Pehl identifies clearly the proper historical actors. Demographically, the phrase working-class religion in early to mid-twentieth-century America referred primarily to three specific groups: Catholics, African American Protestants, and white evangelicals with roots in the rural South. For decades historians concerned with the impact of industrialization on religion focused on the rise of the Social Gospel within northern, middle-class Protestant churches. While useful, this approach reveals very little about the religion of working people themselves. The worlds of immigrant Catholic devotionalism, African American evangelicalism, and southern white revivalism were varied and distinct--but they were also unmistakably the three dominant cultures of working-class religiosity throughout the twentieth century. To construct a more comprehensive picture of working-class religion, he begins to put these people into a common narrative. He also examines political ideology and the United Automobile Workers of America.