History Paper 1 Josiah Strong, Our Country

Josiah Strong, Our Country
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Josiah Strong, Our Country
The late 19th century marked a period of rapid development in the United States of America owing to the effects of industrialization that swept across the nation. Industrialization led to the increase in the rate of rural-urban migration with urbanization also on the rise. The increase in national wealth and the rapid growth of cities in the country accounted for an equally alarming rate of social disorders in the country’s urban societies that were a threat to the moral identity of nativist or conservative Americans. Incidences of disorderly behavior in the nation would often be associated or linked with the immigrants, the minority groups, who the nativists blamed for contaminating the purity of the superior stock of the Anglo-Saxons. The Anglo-Saxons, who were themselves English-speaking immigrants from Northern Europe, share a strong a belief in their social, cultural, political, and economic superiority over all the other ethnicities including their European ancestors. It is under such premises of supremacy in all the outlined aspects that even members of the American guild, such as Josiah Strong, would use their religious influence to spread and sell the Anglo-Saxons’ superiority.
Josiah Strong’s, Our Country, is an explicit declaration of the Anglo-Saxon’s supremacy and dominance over all the other ethnic groups. He purports that the strides social, political, and economic gains witnessed in the United States are a testament to the superior ability of the Anglo-Saxons and their proximity to God’s will through the purity of their Christianity. Strong says of the remarkable achievements in the states, “These tendencies enfold the future; they are the mighty alphabet with which God writes his prophecies,” (Foner, 2016). He attributes the progress within the American community to the superiority of the Anglo-Saxons who are the drivers of civilization and liberty that comes from conforming to their pure Christian value. All who come...