This week, Robert P. Jones, President and Founder of Veatch grantee Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), released his latest book, titled The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future — published by Simon & Schuster.
In 2022, we were thrilled to host Jones as part of our Spring Series, Multiracial Democracy Under Attack, held in conjunction with the Social Justice Committee. As part of the series, Rev. Dr. Natalie Fenimore interviewed Jones about his study of white nationalism in faith traditions, as well as his book previous book, White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity.
Jones’s latest book explores similar themes, while taking the story of white supremacy in America back to 1493 — while also examining contemporary communities in Mississippi, Minnesota, and Oklahoma as models of racial repair. This reframing of American origins explains how the founders of the United States could build the philosophical framework for a democratic society on a foundation of mass racial violence—and why this paradox survives today in the form of white Christian nationalism. Through stories of people navigating these contradictions in three communities, Jones illuminates the possibility of a new American future.
The book is available wherever books are sold, including Bookshop.