Surge of Piety

"Lane’s book will surely be requisite reading for historians who strive to give us a fuller perspective on the career and impact of this unusual American religionist."—Mitch Horowitz, Washington Post

"Surge of Piety contains some impressive archival research on Peale’s relationship with Blanton, and on Blanton’s relationship with Sigmund Freud."—Wall Street Journal

"Lane tells the story of Peale’s rise and fall crisply and without malice, even when Peale is at his more-huckster-than-minister gauchest."—Ray Olson, Booklist

"Lane has done impressive archival research on Peale. . . . [T]he book is thoughtful and makes for interesting reading."—Choice

"Carefully examining everything from Freudian psychology to traditional revivalism, Lane masterfully shows why we cannot make sense of the tremendous mid-century upsurge in American religiosity without understanding the inimitable Peale."—Matthew Avery Sutton, author of American Apocalypse: A History of Modern Evangelicalism

"Christopher Lane reveals a surprisingly understudied dimension of Eisenhower’s political consensus: the religio-psychiatry of Norman Vincent Peale. Lane’s is a fascinating and accessible reassessment of a pivotal political moment and the enduring fusion of popular religion and psychology in American life."—Darren Dochuk, University of Notre Dame

"In Surge of Piety, Christopher Lane ably shows the ways in which Norman Vincent Peale’s potent combination of Protestant Christianity, popular psychiatry, and nationalist politics helped remake America."—Kevin M. Kruse, author of One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America