In Search of the City on a Hill: The Making and Unmaking of an American Myth

In Search of the City on a Hill: The Making and Unmaking of an American Myth by Gamble, Richard M.. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781441162328.

In Search of the City on a Hill challenges the widespread assumption that Americans have always used this potent metaphor to define their national identity. It demonstrates that Americas redeemer myth owes more to nineteenth- and twentieth-century reinventions of the Puritans than to the colonists own conceptions of divine election. It reconstructs the complete story of the city on a hill from its Puritan origins to the present day for the first time. From John Winthrops 1630 Model of Christian Charity and the history books of the nineteenth century to the metaphors sudden prominence in the 1960s and Reagans skillful incorporation of it into his rhetoric in the 80s, the city on a hill has had a complex history: this history reveals much about received notions of American exceptionalism, Americas identity as a Christian nation, and the impact of Americas civil religion. The conclusion considers the current status of the city on a hill and summarizes what this story of national myth eclipsing biblical metaphor teaches us about the evolution of Americas identity.