Divided by God: America's Church-State Problem: And What We Should Do about It by NoahFeldmanReview by: Walter Russell MeadForeign Affairs, Vol. 85, No. 1 (Jan. - Feb., 2006), p. 152Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20031865 .

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Recent Books

The United States WALTER RUSSELL MEAD

Divided by God:America's Church-State Problem-and What We ShouldDoAbout It. BY NOAH FELDMAN. Farrar, Straus

& Giroux, 2005, 320 pp. $25.00.

Sobered and enriched by his experience in the Iraqi and Afghan constitutional debates, Feldman, a law professor at

New York University, returns to the U.S. debate over secularism in this rich and rewarding book. He swiftly and compe tently reviews key episodes in the history of church-state relations to show how the growing religious diversity of the Ameri can people has led to new efforts to find common ground for political and social life. Feldman's brief but brilliant analysis of the recent Supreme Court approach to church-state issues is required reading for anyone who wants to understand the contemporary debate. The modern Supreme Court, Feldman argues, has gotten things almost exactly wrong. Recent decisions have lowered the walls preventing the state financing of religious activities (such as voucher programs)

while raising new and historically unprece dented barriers toward religious symbols in public (such as creches at town halls).

Feldman would allow more religious symbols in the public square but try harder to keep public dollars out of church (and synagogue and mosque) coffers. Whatever the fate of his pro posals, Feldman has done a superb job of making complex legal and historical information on an important public debate usefully accessible.

2006Almanac ofAmerican Politics. BY MICHAEL BARONE WITH RICHARD E.

COHEN. National Journal Group, 2005, 1,900 pp. $69.95.

The most important reference text on American politics is back in a new edition, complete with Barone's analysis of the 2004 election. With maps and capsule histories of every state and all 435 House districts, along with biographies, voting record summaries, and political sketches of every senator and representative, this is the most comprehensive and accurate guide to the labyrinth of U.S. politics ever assembled. The capsule state histo ries alone make this book indispensable for any student of American life and politics; the So different political cultures of the 50 states in the Union play enor mous but often unappreciated roles in national debates over foreign as well as domestic policy. Barone's analysis of the 2004 election sees a country tilting

Republican. Unlike Ruy Teixeira and John Judis (authors of The Emerging Democratic Majority), Barone believes demographic trends continue to favor the GOP. The decline, moreover, of "old

media" and the rise of new, antiestab lishment media (the "right blogosphere") helped Bush, Barone maintains, by publicizing charges by Vietnam "swift boat" veterans against John Kerry and by rapidly discrediting a CBS report critical of Bush's service in the National Guard. (The "left blogosphere," mean while, helped Bush by pushing the Democrats leftward.) That advantage may not last. American media, says Barone, continue to evolve at a rapid pace, changing the rules of the political game in ways that even seasoned play ers cannot predict.

[152] FOREIGN AFFAIRS* Volume8sNo. l

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