Daniel O. Conkle

Religious Liberty in America: The First Amendment in Historical and Contemporary Perspective (review)

Authored by journalist Bruce T. Murray, this concise and readable book discusses topics relating to the religion clauses of the First Amendment and, more generally, to the interaction of religion and politics in the United States. It is the outgrowth of a series of seminars on journalism, religion, and public life, sponsored by the Foundation for American Communications (FACS) and the Pew Charitable Trusts. As an editor for FACS, Murray covered the seminars, and he draws heavily upon the scholarly lectures that they featured, but he incorporates and relies upon a range of additional sources as well. In line with its origins, the book is designed especially for journalists, to assist them in their reporting, but it also is written for undergraduate students and general readers. Murray intends the book to be “an easy read on a tough topic,” a book that “boil[s] the issues down to the journalist’s proverbial ‘nut graph’” (p. xv). As such, the book is not so much an original contribution as a primer on the topics it discusses. Even so, the book is not simplistic, and it backs its assertions with references and footnotes to primary sources and scholarly materials.