Margaret M. McGuinness is Professor of Religion at La Salle University, Philadelphia. She is the author of Called to Serve: A History of Nuns in America (2013), which won the 2014 Catholic Book Award in History and received the 2016 Distinguished Book Award from the Conference on the History of Women Religious. She is also the author of Neighbors and Missionaries: A History of the Sisters of Our Lady of Christian Doctrine (2012). Thomas F. Rzeznik is an Associate Professor of History at Seton Hall University, New Jersey and co-editor of the quarterly journal, American Catholic Studies. He is author of Church and Estate: Religion and Wealth in Industrial-Era Philadelphia (2013).

'… an outstanding overview of the US's distinctive Catholic history … Recommended.' R. A. Boisclair, Choice Connect

• Part I. Historical Overview: 1. American Catholicism's early foundations Maura Jane Farrelly; 2. The immigrant church, 1820-1908 Steven M. Avella; 3. The Catholic century James M. O'Toole; Part II. Catholic Life and Culture: 4. Catholic worship Katharine E. Harmon; 5. Catholic intellectual life William L. Portier; 6. Catholic education James T. Carroll; 7. Social welfare and social reform Mary Elizabeth Brown; 8. Women religious Mary Beth Fraser Connolly; 9. Catholics and politics Lawrence J. McAndrews; 10. Arts and culture Debra Campbell; 11. Anti-Catholicism in the United States Mark Massa, SJ; 12. Gender and sexuality James P. McCartin; 13. American Catholics in a global context Angelyn Dries; Part III. Many Faces of Catholicism: 14. American Catholic laywomen and feminism Paula M. Kane; 15. Black Catholics Cecilia A. Moore; 16. Latinx Catholicism Lauren Guerra and Brett C. Hoover; 17. Asian American Catholics Robert E. Carbonneau; 18. Cultural Catholicism Tom Beaudoin; Conclusion: 19. US Catholicism in the twenty-first century Mary L. Gautier.