{"product_id":"heathen-hindoo-hindu-american-representations-of-india-1721-1893-9780190654924","title":"Heathen, Hindoo, Hindu: American Representations of India, 1721-1893","description":"Today, there are more than two million Hindus in America. But before the twentieth century, Hinduism was unknown in the United States. But while Americans did not write about Hinduism, they speculated at length about heathenism, the religion of the Hindoos, and Brahmanism. In \u003cem\u003eHeathen, \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eHindoo, Hindu\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003e \u003c\/em\u003eMichael J. Altman argues that this is not a mere sematic distinction-a case of more politically correct terminology being accepted over time-but a way that Americans worked out their own identities. American representations of India said more about Americans than about Hindus. \u003cbr\u003eCotton Mather, Hannah Adams, and Joseph Priestley engaged the larger European Enlightenment project of classifying and comparing religion in India. Evangelical missionaries used images of Hindoo heathenism to raise support at home. Unitarian Protestants found a kindred spirit in the writings of\u003cbr\u003eBengali reformer Rammohun Roy. Popular magazines and common school books used the image of dark, heathen, despotic India to buttress Protestant, white, democratic American identity. Transcendentalists and Theosophists imagined the contemplative and esoteric religion of India as an alternative to\u003cbr\u003ematerialist American Protestantism. Hindu delegates and American speakers at the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions engaged in a protracted debate about the definition of religion in industrializing America. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eHeathen, Hindoo, Hindu\u003c\/em\u003e is a groundbreaking analysis of American representations of religion in India before the turn of the twentieth century. Altman reorients American religious history and the history of Asian religions in America, showing how Americans of all sorts imagined India for their own\u003cbr\u003epurposes. The questions that animated descriptions of heathens, Hindoos, and Hindus in the past, he argues, still animate American debates today.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Michael J. Altman\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Oxford University Press, USA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/01\/2017\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 200\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.90lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.30h x 6.10w x 0.90d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780190654924\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMichael J. Altman \u003c\/strong\u003eis an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama. He holds a Ph.D. in American Religious Cultures from Emory University.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Oxford University Press, USA","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":40377893224563,"sku":"9.78019E+12","price":61.95,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0555\/9255\/0515\/products\/img_a5604ee3-1644-453e-9acb-efb003810d30.jpg?v=1661261637","url":"https:\/\/bookstorenmore.com\/en-de\/products\/heathen-hindoo-hindu-american-representations-of-india-1721-1893-9780190654924","provider":"Bookstore N More","version":"1.0","type":"link"}