LAUSR

In my 2004 book Rough Justice: Lynching and American Society, 1847–1947, I considered the role of religion in shaping lynching cultures in the southern, western, and midwestern regions of the United States. The evidence, I argued, was often suggestive but ultimately ambiguous. “Whether Christianity served as context or contradiction for lynching, primary sources are generally silent on how the religiosity of lynchers and their opponents may have influenced the performance and understanding of collective murder,” I asserted (Pfeifer [University of Illinois Press, 2004], 60). Sifting contradictory and complex evidence, I ultimately argued that American Christianity played complex roles in shaping or hindering the impulse of some Americans to lynch.