Book Review of Christian Imperialism: Converting the World in the Early American Republic. By Emily Conroy-Krutz

Christian Imperialism, by Emily Conroy-Krutz, knits together a captivating story of the men and women who passionately obeyed the words once spoken by Jesus, who said, “go ye into the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” In her first book Conroy-Krutz argues that “American missionaries sought to determine how the American foreign mission movement should relate to empire and political institutions.” From 1810 and throughout the nineteenth century brave men and women left everything behind to preach the Gospel to those they called heathens. These missionaries were exceedingly in support of empires in theory, but critical of many imperial principles in practice. Evangelical missionaries imagined communities beyond the shores of the nascent American republic, as they traveled mostly to Asia by the hundreds, then thousands, to spread their faith. They suffered numerous setbacks, but their faith and determination kept them going strong throughout the nineteenth century.