The idea that nationalism and national history can rise to the level of sacred significance has been around since the 1960s when Robert Bellah named it ‘‘civil religion.’’ In his new book, Peter Gardella adds needed richness and detail to Bellah’s concept by systematically describing the monuments, artifacts, texts, songs, images, and places that actually constitute civil religion in the United States. In its particularities, the book is largely oriented toward history and description, although the goal in view is always to add texture to this classic concept in the study of religion. The first chapter introduces the concept of civil religion, mentions several examples of civil religion in the US, and briefly uses the history of (what came to be known as) the Liberty Bell to outline seven phases of America’s civil religion. Those phases are the colonial (or primal) phase, the revolutionary (or classical) phase, the national (or continental) phase, the sacrificial phase (during the Civil War era), the imperial phase (from reconstruction through World War I), the global phase (from the 1930s through the war in Vietnam), and finally a multicultural phase. From there, Gardella presents the elements of American civil religion in a series of 32 short chapters. The topics covered are quite exhaustive, ranging from Jamestown and Plymouth Rock and even the very word ‘‘America’’ to Disney Parks and the 9/11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan. Five patriotic songs each receive their own chapters, as do the flag, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Washington Monument, Arlington National Cemetery, and the speeches of MLK