The Cross of War: Christian Nationalism and U.S. Expansion in the Spanish-American War

Acknowledgments

xi Ac­ knowl­ edg­ ments It was my ad­ viser, James Byrd, who first ­ showed me the im­ por­ tance of Amer­ ica’s wars—and the ­ Spanish-American War in par­ tic­ u­ lar—for ex­ plor­ ing my ques­ tions about the his­ tory of ­ American Chris­ ti­ an­ ity. I am grate­ ful to him for that nudge, and for his ­ steady guid­ ance as a men­ tor and ­ friend through­ out my grad­ u­ ate ca­ reer. I am also thank­ ful to the oth­ ers who ­ served on my dis­ ser­ ta­ tion com­ mit­ tee—Den­ nis Dick­ er­ son, Kath­ leen Flake, Gary Gers­ tle, and James­ Hudnut-Beumler—who ­ through years of course­ work and many pa­ tient and en­ gag­ ing con­ ver­ sa­ tions ­ helped lay the foun­ da­ tion for this work. On con­ fer­ ence pan­ els, ­ through the re­ view pro­ cess, or ­ through sheer kind­ ness, sev­ eral col­ leagues of­ fered in­ val­ u­ able feed­ back on ear­ lier ­ drafts of the man­ u­ script. I am es­ pe­ cially grate­ ful to Jon­ a­ than Ebel, Ken Min­ kema, An­ drew Mur­ phy, Mark Noll, and Harry Stout. This final prod­ uct is much ­ stronger be­ cause of their in­ sights; it would have been even ­ stronger had I been more able to im­ ple­ ment their sug­ ges­ tions. My re­ search was made pos­ sible in part by the gen­ er­ ous fund­ ing and help­ ful­ staffs of the Pres­ by­ ter­ ian His­ tor­ i­ cal So­ ci­ ety, the South­ ern Bap­ tist His­ tor­ i­ cal Li­ brary and ­ Archives, and the Con­ gre­ ga­ tional Li­ brary. The won­ der­ ful staff at the Uni­ ver­ sity of Wis­ con­ sin Press has been a pleas­ ure to work with at every stage of the pro­ cess. I’m es­ pe­ cially grate­ ful to the late Paul Boyer, who first took inter­ est in my work, and to Gwen ­ Walker, who was my faith­ ful guide along the path from dis­ ser­ ta­ tion to book. The prep­ ar­ a­ tion of this book has been an in­ tel­ lec­ tual and emo­ tional mar­ a­ thon made pos­ sible by the deep per­ sonal in­ vest­ ment of many ­ friends and fam­ ily mem­ bers. For spe­ cific times of en­ cour­ age­ ment along the way, I am grate­ ful to Bill Heer­ man, Dave Hunt, Jon­ a­ than Lee­ man, Mike and Deb­ bie Leys, Jamie Mos­ ley, Scott Patty, Drew ­ Raines, and An­ drew Smith. Spe­ cial ­ thanks are due to my ­ mother, Amy—my first and best ­ teacher—and to my ­ father, xii E Acknowledgments Mark—who ­ passed to me his own love for learn­ ing, his love for the study of his­ tory, and es­ pe­ cially his love for the ­ church. My two sons, Wal­ ter and Sam, are ­ sources of in­ cred­ ible joy, ­ mostly wel­ come dis­ trac­ tion, and ­ much-needed per­ spec­ tive on the rel­ a­ tive sig­ nif­i­ cance of my schol­ ar­ ship. Most of all, I am grate­ ful to my wife, Lind­ sey, my ­ truest love and best ­ friend. From be­ gin­ ning to end, she ­ shared with me the bur­ den of this work. She never ­ doubted that the pain was a ­ worthy price for the end re­ sult. This was our work, and it is ded­ i­ cated to her. ...