Spellbound: How Charisma Shaped American History from the Puritans to Donald Trump

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About the Product 🔑

🌟 Feature	Details
📜 Sweeping History	From the Puritans to Donald Trump, this history changes understanding of forces that create leaders and hold followers captive.
🤔 Filling the Void	Explores what happens when Americans lose faith in religious institutions and politicians fill the void.
💡 Understanding America	Argues that we will understand our present moment if we learn the story of charisma in America.
🌪️ Dangerous and Alluring Power	Figures from Puritans and Andrew Jackson to Black nationalists and Donald Trump possess a dangerous and alluring power to move crowds.
✨ Cosmic Drama	Leaders invite followers into a cosmic drama where hopes are fulfilled and grievances are put right.
🙏 Spiritual Needs Met	When religious institutions fail, people get spiritual needs met in a warped cultural and political landscape.
🗺️ Alternate Reality	Charismatic leaders offer an alternate reality where people have knowledge, power, and heroic status.
🔭 Centuries-Spanning Research	Places a crucial religious lens on cultural, economic, and political upheavals facing Americans today.

How to Use 🛠️

Step 1: ✋ Understand the story of charisma in America.

Step 2: 🌪️ Identify figures who possess a dangerous and alluring power to move crowds.

Step 3: 🌍 Explore how Americans get their spiritual needs met in a cultural and political landscape.

Step 4: 🧐 Place a religious lens on cultural, economic, and political upheavals.

Product Details 🏷️

What happens when Americans lose faith in their religious institutions—and politicians fill the void? From the Puritans to Donald Trump, this sweeping history will change your understanding of the forces that create leaders and hold their followers captive.

“Elegant and insightful, Spellbound is an important contribution to the urgent project of understanding America in our time.”—Jon Meacham

Everyone feels it. Cultural and political life in America has become unrecognizable and strange. Firebrands and would-be sages have taken the place of reasonable and responsible leaders. Nuanced debates have given way to the smug confidence of yard signs. How did we get here?

In Spellbound, historian Molly Worthen argues that we will understand our present moment if we learn the story of charisma in America. From the Puritans and Andrew Jackson to Black nationalists and Donald Trump, the saga of American charisma, Worthen argues, stars figures who possess a dangerous and alluring power to move crowds. They invite followers into a cosmic drama where hopes are fulfilled and grievances are put right—and these charismatic leaders insist that they alone plot the way.

The story of charisma in America reveals that when traditional religious institutions fail to deliver on their promise of a meaningful life, people will get their spiritual needs met in a warped cultural and political landscape dominated by those who appear to have the power to bring order and meaning out of chaos. Charismatic leaders address spiritual needs, offering an alternate reality where people have knowledge, power, and heroic status, whether as divinely chosen instruments of God or those who will restore national glory.

Through Worthen’s centuries-spanning historical research, Spellbound places a crucial religious lens on the cultural, economic, and political upheavals facing Americans today.

From the Publisher

Publisher: Forum Books

Publication date: May 27, 2025

Language: English

Print length: 464 pages

ISBN-10: 0593729005

ISBN-13: 978-0593729007

Item Weight: 1.7 pounds

Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.4 x 9.5 inches

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