Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ culture: gender and family; slavery and freedom; ethnicity and empire; and nationhood and citizenship". With the chariot race as its central attraction and the character of Judah emerging as a "heroic action figure", "Ben-Hur" enjoyed a wide popularity among readers, similar to the dime novels of its day; however, its continued appearance on popular lists of great American literature remained a source of frustration for many literary critics over the years. The novel had millions of fans, including several influential men in politics. U.S. president and American Civil War general Ulysses S. Grant, U.S. president James Garfield, and Jefferson Davis,
Tribe of Ben-Hur has changed". The society also operated a monthly allowance program for eligible orphans from birth to eighteen. Tribe of Ben-Hur The Tribe of Ben-Hur was a fraternal organization based on the novel "" by Lew Wallace. In 1930 it became the Ben-Hur Life Association. The idea of starting a fraternal organization based on "Ben-Hur" had first been broached by D. W. Gerard and F. L. Snyder, both of Crawfordsville, Indiana. In November 1893 they held a conference with Lew Wallace asking for his consent to form the order. Wallace consented and secured the permission from his publishers, but objected to