Bethany Moreton talked about her first book, To Serve God and Wal-Mart: The Making of Christian Free Enterprise (Harvard University Press; May 15, 2009). Bethany Moreton argues that the financial success of Wal-Mart was the product of Christian networking. Evangelical workers, overseas missionaries, Christian business students and Sun Belt entrepreneurs used a Christian service ethos, she says, to power capitalism at home and abroad. She talked about the history of Wal-Mart, the largest company on the planet, and its influence on the economy, culture, and foreign policy. Topics included its effect on the role of women in society and in Christianity. 

Bethany Moreton is an associate professor of history and women’s studies at the University of Georgia. She was interviewed at the 102nd annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians at the Washington Convention Center in Seattle. The guest interviewer was Professor Nancy MacLean, author of Freedom Is Not Enough: The Opening of the American Workplace.