Diane Winston - "Righting the American Dream" - Bob Smietana

Diane Winston will discuss Righting the American Dream. She will be joined in conversation with Bob Smietana. A Q&A and signing will follow the discussion.

This event will be held in person at the Seminary Co-op Bookstore. 

Presented in partnership with The Martin Marty Center. 

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About the Book: In Righting the American Dream, Diane Winston reveals how support for Reagan emerged from a new religious vision of American identity circulating in the popular press. Through four key events—the “evil empire” speech, AIDS outbreak, invasion of Grenada, and rise in American poverty rates—Winston shows that many journalists uncritically adopted Reagan’s religious rhetoric and ultimately mainstreamed otherwise unpopular evangelical ideas about individual responsibility. The result is a provocative new account of how Reagan together with the press turned America to the right and initiated a social revolution that continues today.

About the Author: Diane Winston spent over a decade as a journalist and is now associate professor of journalism and Knight Chair in Media and Religion at the University of Southern California. She is the author or editor of several books, including Religion in Los Angeles: Religious Activism, Innovation, and Diversity in the Global City.

About the Interlocutor: Bob Smietana is a national reporter for Religion News Service near Chicago, covering evangelicals, weird religion and the changing religious landscape. A former religion writer for the Tennessean newspaper in Nashville, he has written for national publications including USA Today, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Sojourners, and Christianity Today. He is the author of “Reorganized Religion: The Reshaping of the American Church and Why it Matters."