Reviews
A provocative work... Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty/researchers.
A lively—and often brilliant—book that launches a frontal assault on the received wisdom of how U.S. Catholics understand their history... Scholarly, readable and often rollicking.
The book has many virtues, among which are brevity, clarity, conciseness, deft use of illustrative material from American religious history, and a prose style that is engaging and not at all complicated by the deep thinking it conveys. It is a fine book that deserves a wide readership in the profession.
One rarely reads a book in which historiography is as foregrounded as it is in this one, but Carroll's primary concern is the history of the academic study of religion.
Required reading not only for those working in the field of American Roman Catholic studies, but all in the origins, sources and practice of religious studies.
Carroll is a passionate critic and writer; his ambitiousness is admirable and commendable
An important contribution to the study of American religion.
Carroll's scholarly contribution to both Catholic studies and religious studies is innovative and substantial. His challenge to the 'Protestant Degradation Narrative' is creative, credible, and one that is long overdue. Carroll is insightful in illuminating discrepancies between actual historical fact and (Protestant) theological assumptions in regard to both the definition and understanding of God and that of religion. Fascinating and original, this seminal work will invoke rigorous debate and advance scholarly thinking.
Book Details
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. How the Irish Became Protestant in America
2. Why the Famine Irish Became Catholic in America
3. Italian American Catholicism: The Standard Story and Its Problems
4. Were
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. How the Irish Became Protestant in America
2. Why the Famine Irish Became Catholic in America
3. Italian American Catholicism: The Standard Story and Its Problems
4. Were the Acadians/Cajuns Really Good Catholics?
5. Hispanic Catholicism and the Illusion of Knowledge
6. Protestantism and the Academic Study of American Religion: An Enduring Alliance
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index