Healing the Nation : Literature, Progress, and Christian Science

A surprising history of how Christian Science swept through America, reflected in literature of the time by Twain, Dreiser, Cather, and more. Exploring the surprising presence of Christian Science in American literature at the turn of the twentieth century, L. Ashley Squires reveals the rich and complex connections between religion and literature in American culture. Mary Baker Eddy's Church of Christ, Scientist was one of the fastest growing and most controversial religious movements in the United States, and it is no accident that its influence touched the lives and work of many American writers, including Frances Hodgson Burnett, Willa Cather, Theodore Dreiser, Upton Sinclair, and Mark Twain. Squires focuses on personal stories of sickness and healing—whether supportive or deeply critical of Christian Science's recommendations—penned in a moment when the struggle between religion and science framed debates about how the United States was to become a modern nation. With tales of outsized personalities, outlandish rhetoric, and bitter debate, Squires examines how the poorly understood Christian Science movement contributed to popular narratives about how to heal the nation and advance the cause of human progress.