This authoritative and cutting edge companion brings together a team of leading scholars to document the rich diversity and unique viewpoints that have formed the religious history of the United States. * A groundbreaking new volume which represents the first sustained effort to fully explain the development of American religious history and its creation within evolving political and social frameworks * Spans a wide range of traditions and movements, from the Baptists and Methodists, to Buddhists and Mormons * Explores topics ranging from religion and the media, immigration, and piety, though to politics and social reform * Considers how American religion has influenced and been interpreted in literature and popular culture * Provides insights into the historiography of religion, but presents the subject as a story in motion rather than a snapshot of where the field is at a given moment