The Catholic University of America Press
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Catholics in America: A History, Updated Edition. By Patrick W. Carey. (Lanham, MD: Sheed & Ward. 2008. Pp. xii, 307. $27.95 paperback. ISBN 978-0-742-56233-2.)

Now in an updated edition that supplants the 2004 original, Patrick Carey's Catholics in America displays a rare combination of qualities: it is both encyclopedic and easily digestible. Carey begins with Columbus's landing and ends with sexual abuse, as well as recent controversies over the Iraq War and immigration. As with all histories of such sweeping scope, the narrative is advanced by great men and few great women. But in the process, he finds room for the "view from the pew" and relates intrachurch developments to the larger narrative of American politics and culture. Although the story concludes before page 200, the complexity of American Catholicism's historical development is always on display.

The book is divided into eleven concise chapters, all of which pursue the themes of change and continuity, unity and diversity, and alienation and reconciliation between Catholics and American society. Whether focusing on the problem of creating a strong institutional foundation without government support, the difficulty of forging strategies that could maximize appeal both to Roman authorities and anti-Catholic bigots, or the more recent challenge of sustaining some semblance of Catholic unity amidst the "dizzying diversity" (p. ix) of the contemporary Catholic population, Carey demonstrates how both clerics and laity improvised whenever necessary. He also shows how, at any given time, they pursued multiple strategies for affirming [End Page 168] their faith and making it relevant to their lives as Americans. Thus, readers are not left with a monolithic picture, but a kaleidoscopic impression that captures a church and its people in constant motion.

The appendix of sixty page-length biographical essays represents a useful primer. Readers will find entries on Jacques Marquette, John Carroll, Mathew Carey, Dorothy Day, and Joseph Bernardin. But they will also find information on figures like Catherine Tekakwitha, the Mohawk convert to Catholicism; Mary Elizabeth Lange, the Haitian-born founder of the Oblate Sisters of Providence; James Walsh, who founded the Maryknoll Fathers; and Gustave Weigel, the Jesuit who commenced the practice of formal ecumenical dialogue with American Protestants. Taken together, these essays alone provide a nice introduction to more than 500 years of history. Above all, the global connections of these figures underscore the way in which American Catholicism was never simply an American phenomenon, but always an international one.

Carey's vast knowledge and his ability to bring a scattered array of details into a coherent narrative will impress any reader. This book is recommended for anyone seeking a richly detailed but crisp study of American Catholicism.

James P. McCartin
Seton Hall University

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