American Heathens: The Politics of Identity in a Pagan Religion Movement

Jennifer Snook is a sociologist, and this academic book, published by Temple University Press, studies American Heathenry, the modern revival of pre-Christian Germanic and Norse religion, examining how practitioners construct religious and ethnic identity within the movement, including its internal disputes over race and inclusion. Its strength is direct sociological fieldwork with American Heathen communities and organizations, letting Snook document real internal debate rather than presenting the movement as ideologically uniform. Its limit is that it focuses on the American context and the period of Snook's own fieldwork, so Heathenry's development in other countries or in the years since publication needs separate, more current sources to track fully.