Books Like Live Laugh Love

Connects evangelical gender ideals, popular culture, and conservative politics through a sweeping history of white evangelical masculinity.

Pick this if you want more of Du Mez’s analytical framework applied to gender, religion and politics — this is her own prior book and the clearest intellectual predecessor.

Reveals how historical forces transformed patriarchal gender roles into supposedly timeless Christian doctrine.

Pick this if you appreciated the way Du Mez historicizes contemporary gender ideals and want a scholarly account that traces how patriarchal roles became presented as timeless Christian doctrine.

Investigates evangelical purity culture through intimate stories of women confronting its enduring psychological and political legacy.

Pick this if you were most interested in the personal, psychological effects of evangelical culture on women; this book foregrounds survivors’ stories and the ongoing emotional legacy of purity movements.

Traces the institutions, money, and organizing networks behind Christian nationalism’s influence on American public life.

Pick this if you want detailed reporting on the organizations, money and media that give Christian political influence its infrastructure — a rigorous journalistic complement to Du Mez’s cultural analysis.

Offers an expansive narrative history of evangelicalism’s transformation into a powerful American political and cultural movement.

Pick this if you liked wide‑angle narrative history that situates contemporary movements in a longer, national story of evangelical political and cultural change.

Shows how corporate interests helped fuse Christianity, free enterprise, and conservative national identity in modern America.

Pick this if your interest is in how business interests, branding and national identity blended with religious messaging; this book emphasizes the corporate and political partnerships that shaped modern faith culture.

Reports from the networks and communities that turned conservative Christianity into an organized political force.

Pick this if you want investigative, contemporary reporting on the communities and activist networks that turned conservative Christianity into organized political influence.

Examines how white women enter and sustain extremist movements through identity, community, media, and grievance.

Pick this if you are focused on how identity, community and media draw white women into political or extremist movements. It’s not identical to Du Mez’s subject — this pick zeroes in on radicalization dynamics rather than mainstream evangelical consumer culture.

Explores how persuasive language builds belonging across religion, wellness culture, lifestyle brands, and multilevel marketing.

Pick this if you were intrigued by Du Mez’s point about brands and rhetoric shaping women’s lives; this book analyzes the persuasive language and cultlike techniques used across religion, wellness and multilevel marketing.