Darren E. Grem is Assistant Professor of History and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi.

Named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title

"rarely has this topic been so thoroughly, carefully, and insightfully examined as in Darren E. Grem's The Blessings of Business ... this is a wonderful book certain to have a major impact for years to come." -- Matthew Avery Sutton, Journal of Religion

"Darren E. Grem's The Blessings of Business: How Corporations Shaped Conservative Christianity offers a necessary glimpse into the world of conservative evangelical Christianity and the businessmen and corporations that supported its rise to religious and cultural dominance in public life. This is a helpful book for those interested in both history and religion, and is sure to be an enlightening read." --Blake I. Campbell, Journal of Markets & Morality R

"The foremost criteria for a historical book is whether it meets its stated objective. Grem succeeds in meeting all three of his explicit objectives: he shows how corporations shaped conservative Protestant Christianity; exposes the business side of American religion, with its cultural and political ramifications; and places the construction of American religion within the history of corporate capitalism. Provocative, informative, and required reading for all who wonder how conservative evangelicalism became linked at the hip with modern free-market capitalism, Grem's book shows how many Christians came to reconcile serving both God and mammon."--Brandon J. Payne, H-Net

"This is an excellent and ambitious book. Grem has done a tremendous amount of research, his writing is clear, and his examples are consistently engaging. The book is a welcome addition to the exploding historiography on modern American evangelicalism. . This is a wonderful book certain to have a major impact for years to come."--Matthew Avery Sutton, Journal of Religion

"Packed with fascinating biographical and institutional details. . . . Grem astutely details the increase in social, cultural, and political power resulting from the millions and millions of dollars [businessmen] donated to evangelical organizations. In this invaluable book . . . [are] gems . . . born of assiduous historical research [that] ought to secure for The Blessings of Business a lasting place on reading lists in twentieth-century religion, business, and politics."--Journal of American History

"A worthy contribution[. . . .] Grem is especially adept at teasing out the interconnections among these various individuals and groups, as well as pointing out the racism and homophobia that underlies many of these companies and the labor practices in their supply chains."--American Historical Review

"Stellar... The Blessings of Business is, in short, a strikingly comprehensive synthesis, brilliant in its combination of sweeping and probing analysis."--Business History Review

"In this welcome addition to the literature on Christianity and capitalism, Darren Grem shows that businessmen not only championed evangelical and fundamentalist causes but also changed them considerably, sparking a corporatization of conservative religious culture that spread from televangelist theme parks to Chick-fil-A restaurants." --Kevin M. Kruse, author of One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America

"Few areas of scholarship are livelier than that addressing the Christian history of American business. Into this dynamic community of research, Darren Grem regales us with the uncanny abilities of evangelical businessmen in their negotiation of the marketplace. He demonstrates that evangelicalism doesn't just define the outlook of a minority of American businesses. Rather, he shows how born-again theologies and politics became embedded in corporate managerial strategies. Matters of business in America are, Grem demonstrates, always also matters of faith." --Kathryn Lofton, author of Oprah: The Gospel of an Icon

"Faith in the market takes on a double meaning in Darren Grem's persuasive book of political and religious history, which explores the evangelical ventures sponsored by business leaders and the corporate enterprises founded by Christian evangelists. The Blessings of Business demonstrates that the fusion of conservative evangelicalism and corporate capitalism shaped American political culture throughout the twentieth century, demolishing the conventional wisdom that Religious Right backlash and Republican party elites first bridged the alleged gap between 'social' and 'economic' issues in the 1970s and 1980s." --Matthew D. Lassiter, author of The Silent Majority: Suburban Politics in the Sunbelt South

"The book's greatest strength is in its careful analysis of the records, and production, of Christian businesses...he successfully addresses southern religion, and the ways that many of the businesses he follows are both southern- and Christian-identified."--Journal of Southern Religion