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oai:mountainscholar.org:10217/1893762025-12-30T03:39:09Zcom_10217_100532com_10217_100000com_10217_100386com_10217_100303col_10217_100538col_10217_100387

Lee, Kristina M., author Anderson, Karrin Vasby, advisor Prasch, Allison, committee member Cloud, Doug, committee member 2018-06-12T16:14:12Z 2018-06-12T16:14:12Z 2018 Lee_colostate_0053N_14758.pdf https://hdl.handle.net/10217/189376 https://doi.org/10.25675/3.018935 During the Cold War, President Eisenhower used civil religion and what Philip Wander calls prophetic dualism to construct an image of the American people. In doing so he excluded atheists from his description of the American citizenry. In order to understand how atheists fit into the national imagination inspired by President Eisenhower, this thesis explores how Eisenhower talked explicitly and implicitly, through rhetorical omission, about atheists. I argue that President Eisenhower framed atheists as un-American during his presidency, which contributed to a negative perception of atheists that is still prevalent in modern American society. This thesis also calls on scholars to be more mindful of how the theist-normativity promoted in American society marginalizes American atheists, both historically and today. born digital masters theses English eng Colorado State University. Libraries 2000-2019 Copyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright. civil religion Eisenhower theist-normativity atheist prophetic dualism Cold War Constituting the un-American atheist: Eisenhower's theistnormativity and the negation of American atheists Text Master of Arts (M.A.) Masters Communication Studies Colorado State University This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights (https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/). You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). open.access