Prodigal Nation: Moral Decline and Divine Punishment from New England to 9/11 (review)

Scholars of rhetoric would be quick to confirm that the nation has acquired, over the course of its development, a distinct way of inducing its citizens to action. Renowned literary scholar Sacvan Bercovitch referred to this rhetoric as a kind of political sermon that aroused national sentiment and induced adherence to social norms. He referred to this national rhetoric as the "American jeremiad" and traced its rhetorical form to the lamentations of Jeremiah, the biblical prophet whose critique of the Jews provided rationale for Babylon's demise. Adapted to the social and political conditions of colonial New England, the American jeremiad expressed a distinct way of arguing for religious freedom, political independence, and unity. Adopted by generations of religious and political leaders alike, the jeremiad has become a customary way of talking about cultural and political issues and effecting social change. Most importantly, it has evolved into a distinctively American way of understanding the significance of the present as it relates to the nation's past and its "yet-to-be-realized future," as it adapts to the shift ing landscape of American politics (121).

In Prodigal Nation, Moral Decline and Divine Punishment from New England to 9/11, Andrew Murphy contributes to the body of literature that examines the American jeremiad and its role in contemporary political discourse. Murphy describes the American jeremiad as a political narrative that is both corrective and creative. Its capacity to organize the public along communal lines revitalizes patriotic sentiment and collective identity (38). Murphy's examination of the American jeremiad follows a chronological scheme that spans eight chapters and two sections. "Part One: Three American Jeremiads" and "Part Two: The Jeremiad in American Culture" illustrate what might be referred to as the "long tradition of the American jeremiad" (5). Part 1 relays the social, historical, and political particularities that informed the Puritan New England jeremiad, the Antebellum and Civil War jeremiads, and Christian Right jeremiad. Part 2 provides a formulaic guide for investigating the rhetorical contours of the jeremiad. Murphy outlines these differences as part of an analytical framework that maps the conditions and strategies from which calls for social and moral reform are made. Murphy's contribution to the tradition of work conducted by scholars such as Perry Miller, Sacvan Bercovitch, David Howard-Pitney, Eddie Glaude, and others resides here in part 2, where he provides a heuristic for analyzing competing jeremiads.

Using the terms "traditionalist" and "progressive," Murphy categorizes several American jeremiads as they relate to occasion, audience, message, and narrative structure. The traditionalist and progressive jeremiads are distinguished by competing interpretations of the American past. The traditionalist form is a "nostalgic narrative" that laments the loss of a virtuous past, interprets contemporary catastrophes as divine punishment, and "offers a vision of the future in which the past serves as a model and a limiting condition, a sort of empirical checklist to guide a political agenda of the future" (111). It is grounded by religious orthodoxy and valorizes the American past as the model for the future. Key to the traditionalist form is its projection of a prodigal nation headed for divine punishment. This image plays on the religious anxieties of the people as a strategy for reformation.

Murphy notes that in their call for a return to the traditions and conventions of the American past, traditionalist jeremiads such as those of Colonial New England and the Christian Right express a deep uneasiness with cultural diversity (112). Citing debates on immigration, marriage, and school prayer, Murphy demonstrates how arguments to preserve the nation are couched in xenophobic terms. In such cases as immigration, facts about the ethnic, religious, and linguistic demographics of the American past are offered as a model for the present. In contrast, the progressive jeremiad, which interprets the American past as promise and birthright, acknowledges the diverse and pluralistic character of American society as the essence of democratic politics. Its...