Catholicism and American Freedom: A History

by McGreevy, John T.

• ISBN13: 9780393047608
• ISBN10: 0393047601
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-05-01
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc

Summary

Two centuries of struggles and sympathies between one religion and democracy in America. For two centuries, Catholicism has played a profound and largely unexamined role in America's political and intellectual life. Emphasizing the community over the individual, Catholics have alternately challenged and supported American liberals on a variety of controversial issues, including slavery, public education, economic reform, the movies, contraception, the nuclear arms race, and abortion. The story of Catholicism is also international, as Catholics and non-Catholics reacted to people, ideas, and events abroad, from the 1848 revolutions to the rise of European fascism in the 1930s and the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. Putting the current sexual-abuse scandal in the Church and the media's response in a much larger context, this stimulating history of both Catholicism and anti-Catholicism is a model of nuanced scholarship and provocative reading. 21 b/w illustrations.

Author Biography

John T. McGreevy is the John A. O'Brien Associate Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame.

Table of Contents

Introduction The Eliot School Rebellion, Boston, 1859	7	(19)
Education and the Nineteenth-Century Catholic Revival	19	(24)
Catholicism, Slavery, and the Cause of Liberty	43	(25)
Catholic Freedom and Civil War	68	(23)
The Nation	91	(36)
The Social Question	127	(39)
American Freedom and Catholic Power	166	(23)
Democracy, Religious Freedom, and the Nouvelle Theologie	189	(27)
Life (I)	216	(34)
Life (II)	250	(32)
A Consistent Ethic and Sexual Abuse	282	(15)
Notes	297	(110)
Photo Credits	407	(1)
Acknowledgments	408	(3)
Index	411