Race, risk, and American religious groups' views of Nazi Germany in 1935

Bibliographic Data

ID5614522
AuthorsMichele Garrity (0000-0003-4648-2802, George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government Fairfax Virginia USA), Melissa J Wilde (University of Pennsylvania), Melissa Wilde (University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia Pennsylvania USA)
Year2023
Volume74
Issue4
Pages598-623
Publication date2023-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBritish Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-1315 • E-ISSN: 1468-4446
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1468-4446.13020
PMID37438869
OpenAlexW4384126435
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited62

What explains American religious groups' views of Nazi Germany before the U.S. entered the Second World War? Using a comparative-historical approach, we employ a novel set of data on 25 of America's most prominent religious denominations to answer this question. We find that two factors were crucial in explaining religious elite discourse about Hitler in the U.S. in 1935: whether leaders believed in white supremacy and whether their denominations were incumbents or challengers in the American religious field. Our findings underscore the growing theoretical consensus that racial resentment is key to support for authoritarianism and call attention to religious groups' complicity in its growth, both active and passive

Authoritarianism · Complicity · Criminology · Democracy · Elite · Nazism · Political science · Politics · Race (biology · Resentment · Sociology · White (mutation · Gender Studies · Law · Religion and Society Interactions · Religion, Society, and Development · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology

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