Fighter with a Heart: Writings of Charles Owen Rice, Pittsburgh Labor Priest ed. by Charles J. McCollester (review)

book reviews591 Coughlin's conflictual relationship with Mooney, and Mooney's correspondence with the Roosevelt administration as both made efforts to silence Coughlin in 1942. This volume, while extensively researched, has many inaccuracies, e.g., referring to the Summa Theologica as a papal encyclical (p. 11); naming Thomas O'Brien, vice-presidential candidate of the Union Party, as a Congress[man] rather than District Attorney of Boston (p. 88); identifying economist Gertrude Coogan twice as "Cooper" (pp. 141-142); erroneous material on Father Denis Fahey who did his theological studies in Rome rather than France, never belonged to the Action Française, and did not form the Maria Duce movement until the 1940's (p. l6l);and a reference to Coughlin celebrating Mass on New Year's Day in "rich purple vestments" (p. ix), a color reserved to Advent, Lent, and Ember Days. It is regrettable that this volume was not edited with more care to correct these as well as typographical and other errors, and confusions in documentary data. Coughlin, a precursor of the televangelists, mixed religion and politics in an incendiary way. Warren's goal of relating "the story of hate radio" is unfulfilled, however, by his fleeting references to Falwell and Robertson, and efforts to provide a link to the Oklahoma City bombing in the light of Coughlin as "the inspirational leader" of the Christian Front. His claim to substantiate Coughlin's connection to the Nazi regime, while fascinating, does not provide incontestable evidence. The story of "hate radio" is larger than Coughlin. He was, however, a unique catalyst. As Warren states:"He ushered in a revolution in American mass media by his dramatic ability to blend religion, politics and entertainment in a powerful brew whose impact is still being felt decades later. . . ." Mary Christine Äthans, B.V.M. The Saint Paul Seminary School ofDivinity ofthe University ofSt. Thomas (Minnesota) Fighter with a Heart: Writings ofCharles Owen Rice, Pittsburgh Labor Priest. Edited by Charles J. McCollester. (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. 1996. Pp. xx, 244. $49.95 cloth; $19.95 paper.) Fighter is a delightful collection from the writings of Monsignor Rice, Pittsburgh 's premier social activist priest. (He was once best known as a "labor priest,"but has long since transcended that category.) McCollester's deft editing of some sixty years of Rice's works, nicely appointed with telling photographs, chronologies, and a brief introduction and transitions, allows Rice himself to bring back to vivid life the nearly nine decades of his existence and many ofthe causes with which he has been involved—even at a time when he is in his 592BOOK REVD2WS ninetieth year and a doughty battler still. Those who are familiar with the social history of Pittsburgh, or wish they were, will not find a more enjoyable way to pursue their interest than with Fighter. That said, there remain substantial differences of interpretation between the portrait of Rice offered in this volume and the one in my biography, Charles Owen Rice, Apostle of Contradiction (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1989). McCollester, a close friend of Rice and his appointed literary executor, says of that book that it "has the facts straight, but the analysis is weak" (p. 237). I, on the other hand, believe that historians will need to take with a large grain of salt McCollester's editorial efforts to depict a personal icon and hometown hero. McCollester's interpretation of Rice is relatively unambiguous: the pugnacious Irish lad who becomes a devoted Catholic priest with an abiding affection for the underdog and a willingness to enter the lists against an ever-changing lineup of adversaries, perhaps going to a bit of (later regretted) excess at times, but erring only on the side of the angels, a hero of American labor history ifever there was one. Over six decades, McCollester's Rice speaks with a coherent and unambiguous voice. That is, in fact, the version of Rice I once set out to write, but along the way things became rather more complicated . Fighters, I came to realize, have victims. In Rice's case this does not mean the captains ofindustry or the conservative politicians who ultimately won most of their battles and...