Remapping the History of Catholicism in the United States: Essays from the US Catholic Historian ed. by David J. Endres (review)

Editor David Endres observes that this special collection of U.S. Catholic Historian essays can "serve as a model for the historians engaged in the effort of charting the complexity and diversity of American Catholicism" (vii). The essays, which were originally published between 2008 and 2014, do so admirably in their attention to Latino/a Catholicism in the United States, Catholic women, black Catholics, and the ecclesial activism of the American hierarchy in the Cold War. Because Remapping the History of Catholicism in the United States consists solely of articles published in the journal, a brief synopsis of each article and an evaluation of the collection's impact will have to suffice.

Timothy Matovina draws attention to one of the field's longest-standing problems, namely a heavy geographic focus on the eastern portion of the United States. While conceding that this has historically been a weakness of all of American religious historiography, he nonetheless notes that not taking a wider view—in this case, even a hemispheric view—entails overlooking the massive contributions to American Catholicism by Latino/a immigrants.

Jeanne Petit narrates the civic activism of Catholic women, who formed a powerful voice for women and children in the early twentieth century but nonetheless represented a mixed blessing "to a hierarchy who were, at best, skeptical of the ability of Catholic women to be political actors and, at worst, saw organized women as a dangerous force" (63). The political and cultural climate of the late 1920s, however, quashed most hopes for Catholic women to function as a cohesive power in either Catholic or civic life.

Amanda Bresie's colorful account of Katharine Drexel's benefactions to Native American missions suggests that class modifies Petit's argument for the role of Catholic women: as Drexel had enormous financial resources at her disposal, her ability to shape mission work was almost unrivaled in the American church. Drexel's example furthermore contests the notion of Christian missionaries acting solely as colonizing agents of Euro-American nationalism-imperialism, with the Blessed Sacrament mother superior bankrolling native suits against the federal government on land reclamation.

Kristine Ashton Gunnell's essay on the Daughters of Charity in Los Angeles stands on its own merit but works especially well when read alongside the essay by Bresie and Matovina. The Daughters' focus on "respect for the individual and human dignity … counteracted some of the most pernicious aspects of Americanization," seeking not to melt immigrant culture in the American Catholic pot.

Anne Klejment's essay pairs Dorothy Day and César Chávez as catalysts to lay activism, radically embracing poverty and nonviolence in advance of similar movements that would not flourish until well after the Second Vatican Council. Furthermore, their drive against injustice held little regard for denominational boundaries, placing them once again in the vanguard of American Catholicism by "partner[ing] with non-Catholics who shared their values and occasionally borrowed their ideas" (142).

Matthew Cressler's article on the emergence of Black Catholic liturgies in the explosive atmosphere generated by the combination of Black Power and Vatican II calls attention to internal debates over "authentic black" Catholicism. Cressler notes that "for black Catholics, the experience of Vatican II was inseparable from Black Power"—whether those same black Catholics favored the Black Power movement or not (146). Some felt that liturgical worship offered black Catholics a unique opportunity to express their cultural patrimony, while others "strongly objected to the idea that the Mass could (or should) include distinctively black practices or address political concerns" (156).

Finally, Joseph Chinnici pans out from the national and identity-based focus within the previous articles, instead arguing that American Catholicism in the postconciliar era cannot be understood apart from its intrinsic connection to a—and, eventually, the—global superpower. Not least from this framework emerges the particular relationship between...