Catholics in America

Patrick W. Carey is professor of theology at Marquette University. He is former president of the American Catholic Historical Society and lives in Newton, Wisconsin.

Carey writes with clarity and grace, deftly guiding readers through the intricacies of American Catholic history. Especially impressive is the way the author balances hierarchical and clerical perspectives with those of the laity and external observers of the Catholic scene. Carey integrates an amazing amount of detail into this concise, carefully structured history, making the controversies and historical protagonists come alive, whether the focus is on the Colonial era, Americanism in the 1890s, Cold War Catholicism, or the escalation of the crisis over sexual abuse by clergy at the turn of the 21st century. Highly recommended.

• Chapter 1 Colonial Catholicism: 1492-1840Chapter 2 A Free Church in a Free State: 1776-1815Chapter 3 Internal Conflicts, Nativism, and Immigrant Catholicism: 1815-1866Chapter 4 Reconstruction and Expansion: 1866-1884Chapter 5 Americanism: 1884-1899Chapter 6 Catholicism in the Progressive Era: 1900-1920Chapter 7 The Roaring Twenties, the Depression, and World War II: 1920-1945Chapter 8 Catholicism in the Cold War: 1945-1965Chapter 9 Post-Vatican II Catholicism: 1965-1990Chapter 10 Troubled Times: 1990-2003Chapter 11 From John Paul II to Benedict XVI: 2003-2007