This book examines the place and nature of religion in industrial societies through a comparative analysis of conservative Protestant politics in a variety of ‘first world’ societies. Rejecting the popular, but misleading, grouping of diverse movements under the heading of ‘fundamentalism’, this book presents a series of detailed case studies of the Christian Right in the United States, Protestant unionism in Northern Ireland, anti-Catholicism in Scotland, Afrikaner politics in South Africa, and Empire Loyalism in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. It examines the constraints that culturally ... More

This book examines the place and nature of religion in industrial societies through a comparative analysis of conservative Protestant politics in a variety of ‘first world’ societies. Rejecting the popular, but misleading, grouping of diverse movements under the heading of ‘fundamentalism’, this book presents a series of detailed case studies of the Christian Right in the United States, Protestant unionism in Northern Ireland, anti-Catholicism in Scotland, Afrikaner politics in South Africa, and Empire Loyalism in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. It examines the constraints that culturally diverse societies place on those who wish to promote political agendas based on religious ideas or on religiously informed ethnic identities.