Catholics in the American Century: Recasting Narratives of U.S. History ed. by R. Scott Appleby and Kathleen Sprows Cummings (review)

This book is another example of the prolific output of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame, and is part of their "Catholicism in Twentieth-Century America" series published by Cornell University Press. This current effort consists of a series of essays playing off Time magazine's editor Henry Luce's designation of the twentieth century as "the American Century." The book has gathered six noted historians of U.S. history – Robert Orsi, Lizabeth Cohen, Thomas J. Sugrue, R. Marie Griffith, David G. Gutiérrez, and Wilfred M. McClay – who, outside of Orsi, are not considered religious or Catholic historians. Indeed, one scholar Gutiérrez refers to himself as "a secular, religiously skeptical Chicano historian" (110). The essays are book-ended with overview essays by noted Catholic historians John T. McGreevy and R. Scott Appleby.

At the heart of the book are two basic historiographical concerns: first, that the role and impact of U.S. Catholicism on the larger history of the United States has been largely neglected or ignored by secular, mainstream historians; and second, that Catholic historians have failed to engage the larger historiographical discussions and issues in mainstream U.S. history. As Sugrue suggests, "Catholic historiography . . . [with exceptions] remains largely trapped in the Catholic ghetto," and "Catholic historians mostly write for each other" (67). These essays hope to move both Catholic and mainstream or secular historians to take one another seriously and to incorporate the insights of one another's works into their own works.

All six essays explore the interaction of Catholicism with American culture. Robert Orsi provides an innovative perspective on U.S. Catholic assimilation arguing that the U.S. Catholic emphasis on suffering, pain, sacrifice, and persecution has put Catholics at odds with "modernity" and with American society even as they became a part of both. Orsi demonstrates how Catholics developed their own narrative that allowed them to adapt to U.S. society without sacrificing their distinctiveness. This is a brilliant essay, but Orsi's powerful prose might neglect the power of immigrant optimism and humor within the Catholic populace.

All of the essays suggest major areas that might be fruitfully addressed. Cohen suggests that the global reality of the church opens up many possibilities for "transnational history," and the internationalizing of U.S. history. Sugrue attacks the notion of "sixties exceptionalism" which views the 1960s as a unique era that represented a radical break from the immediate past. Rather, Sugrue suggests that the "long process" of social, cultural, and political change must be addressed. In some ways this can be understood as the secular version of the debate over the Second Vatican Council: rupture or continuity. Griffith suggests that a new look needs to be taken at the role of U.S. Catholics in the history of sexuality and gender. In many histories, Catholics are depicted as the conservative heavies seeking to impede sexual progress at every turn. Griffith suggests the story is far more complex. Gutiérrez addresses the reality that Chicano historians have largely neglected the religious dimensions of Chicano history, and even when addressed, the church was portrayed merely as oppressor. The reality is far more complicated and only recently has the complexity started to be addressed. McClay ends with a rather idiosyncratic essay that plays off of Richard John Neuhaus's concept of the "Catholic moment," that Catholicism is uniquely suited to redeem declining U.S. society through its social justice tradition. Historians, he argues, should emphasize U.S. Catholic distinctiveness and teaching and hold it up as a beacon to restore U.S. society.

There is much food for reflection in these essays as the authors lay down the challenge for mainstream historians and historians of U.S. Catholicism to take one another's works more seriously, and thereby enrichen both fields...