First published in 1989, Faith and Economic Practice: Protestant Businessmen in Chicago, 1900-1920 ponders the role that religion played in North American society in the 20th Century.


Written against the backdrop of a religious resurgence in American society, represented by such phenomena as the Moral Majority, television preachers, prayer breakfasts, parochial schools, brainwashing cults, anti-pornography campaigns and organizations established for the purpose of restoring Judeo-Christian values, the volume examines both the religious milieu and the larger environment in which it functions. Through studying businessmen in Chicago who were both leading actors in a capitalist society and Protestant church members with personal religious agendas, the books explores the interactions between religious expression and economic order and the role of religion in capitalism with the purpose of assessing the extent to which their religious views were shaped by their business experience and social outlook as the wealthy elite of society.