Synopses & Reviews
Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2008 With infectious energy and a genuine gift for storytelling, Raymond A. Schroth recounts the history of Jesuits in the United States. The American Jesuits isn't simply a book for Catholics; it's for anyone who loves a well-told historical tale. For more than 450 years, Jesuit priests have traveled the globe out of a religious commitment to serve others. Their order, the Society of Jesus, is the largest religious order of men in the Catholic Church, with more than 20,000 members around the world and almost 3,000 in the United States. It is one of the more liberal orders in the Church, taking very public stands in the U.S. on behalf of social justice causes such as the promotion of immigrants rights and humanitarian aid, including assistance to Africa's poor, and against American involvement in "unjust wars." Jesuits have played an important part in Americanizing the Catholic Church and in preparing Catholic immigrants for inclusion into American society.
Starting off with the first Jesuit to reach the New World—he was promptly murdered on the Florida coast—Schroth focuses on the key periods of the Jesuit experience in the Americas, beginning with the era of European explorers, many of whom were accompanied by Jesuits and some of whom were Jesuits themselves. Suppressed around the time of the American Revolution, the Society experienced resurgence in the nineteenth century, arriving in the U.S. along with waves of Catholic immigrants and establishing a network of high schools and universities. In the mid-twentieth century, the Society transformed itself to serve an urbanizing nation.
Schroth is not blind to the Societys shortcomings and not all of his story reflects well on the Jesuits. However, as he reminds readers, Jesuits are not gods and they don't dwell in mountaintop monasteries. Rather, they are imperfect men who work in a messy world to “find God in all things” and to help their fellow men and women do the same.
A quintessential American tale of men willing to take risks — for Indians, blacks, immigrants, and the poor, and to promote a loving picture of God—The American Jesuits offers a broad and compelling look at the impact of this 400-year-old international order on American culture and the cultures impact on the Jesuits.
Review
"
The Gentlemen and the Roughs" is an interesting book, carefully researched and covering an area of the Civil War that has been virtually ignored."
“It is commonplace to observe that war is the ultimate test of the ‘manhood’ of soldiers. But in the Civil War—as probably in all wars—the meaning of manhood was contested, as Lorien Foote makes clear in this fine study of Union soldiers. Making intelligent use of regimental reports and court-martial records, among other kinds of evidence, she teases out the various perceptions of manhood in this study that offers stimulating new interpretations of the values of soldiers in the broader context of American Victorian culture.”
“From hazing with mule urine to pistols at ten paces, Foote provides a lively portrait of ‘conduct unbecoming’ and offers new insights into American masculinity in post-Civil War America.”
“This might be the first ‘military history’ to take gender seriously, as well as the first gender history to accord military history its due.”
Review
“From hazing with mule urine to pistols at ten paces, Foote provides a lively portrait of ‘conduct unbecoming and offers new insights into American masculinity in post-Civil War America.”
- Catherine Clinton, author of Mrs. Lincoln: A Life
Review
“This might be the first ‘military history to take gender seriously, as well as the first gender history to accord military history its due.”
- Amy S. Greenberg, author of Manifest Manhood and the Antebellum American Empire
Review
“[Schroth] here offers a readable overview of the society, beginning in 1566 with the arrival of Portuguese Jesuits off the coast of Florida and covering both the heroic positives and frank negatives of its presence and influences in mission, education, and social justice. . . . This book fills a gap in general works on the subject.”
-Library Journal,
Review
“Raymond Schroth has hit gold.”
-Julie Bourbon,Fordham Magazine
Review
“Valuable as an undergraduate text, as a guidebook for those curious about the Society but with only a distant knowledge of its workings, and as a reference for Jesuit novices who are unlikely to know much about the history of the organization they are joining. . . . Popular history for grown-ups. . . . A page turner.”
-American Catholic Studies,
Review
“We are offered rewarding discussions of Jesuits engagement with the abolitionist debate, their role in the CIvil War, tales of such Jesuit characters as Arnold Damen and measured reportage of many of the controversies that engulfed the order.”
-America: The National Catholic Weekly,
Review
“Schroth writes with lucidity and has an ear for the telling quotation.”
-First Things,
Synopsis
During the Civil War, the Union army—like the society from which it sprang—appeared cohesive enough to withstand four years of grueling war against the Confederates and to claim victory in 1865. But fractiousness bubbled below the surface of the Norths presumably united front. Internal fissures were rife within the Union army: class divisions, regional antagonisms, ideological differences, and conflicting personalities all distracted the army from quelling the Southern rebellion.
In this highly original contribution to Civil War and gender history, Lorien Foote reveals that these internal battles were fought against the backdrop of manhood. Clashing ideals of manliness produced myriad conflicts when educated, refined, and wealthy officers (“gentlemen”) found themselves commanding a hard-drinking group of fighters (”roughs”)—a dynamic that often resulted in violence and even death. Challenges, fights, and duels were common. Based on extensive research into heretofore ignored primary sources—courts-martial records and regimental order books—The Gentlemen and the Roughs uncovers holes in our understanding of the men who fought the Civil War and the society that produced them.
Synopsis
Finalist for the 2011 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize -A seminal work. . . . One of the best examples of new, sophisticated scholarship on the social history of Civil War soldiers.- --The Journal of Southern History -Will undoubtedly, and properly, be read as the latest word on the role of manhood in the internal dynamics of the Union army.- --Journal of the Civil War Era During the Civil War, the Union army appeared cohesive enough to withstand four years of grueling war against the Confederates and to claim victory in 1865. But fractiousness bubbled below the surface of the North's presumably united front. Internal fissures were rife within the Union army: class divisions, regional antagonisms, ideological differences, and conflicting personalities all distracted the army from quelling the Southern rebellion. In this highly original contribution to Civil War and gender history, Lorien Foote reveals that these internal battles were fought against the backdrop of manhood. Clashing ideals of manliness produced myriad conflicts, as when educated, refined, and wealthy officers (-gentlemen-) found themselves commanding a hard-drinking group of fighters (-roughs-)--a dynamic that often resulted in violence and even death. Based on extensive research into heretofore ignored primary sources, The Gentlemen and the Roughs uncovers holes in our understanding of the men who fought the Civil War and the society that produced them.
Synopsis
Finalist for the 2011 Gilder
Lehrman Lincoln Prize
A seminal work. . . . One of
the best examples of new, sophisticated scholarship on the social history of
Civil War soldiers.
--The Journal of Southern History
"Will undoubtedly, and properly, be
read as the latest word on the role of manhood in the internal dynamics of the
Union army.
--Journal of the Civil War Era
During the Civil War, the Union
army appeared cohesive enough to withstand four years of grueling war against
the Confederates and to claim victory in 1865. But fractiousness bubbled below
the surface of the North's presumably united front. Internal fissures were rife
within the Union army: class divisions, regional antagonisms, ideological
differences, and conflicting personalities all distracted the army from
quelling the Southern rebellion.
In this highly original
contribution to Civil War and gender history, Lorien Foote reveals that these internal
battles were fought against the backdrop of manhood. Clashing ideals of
manliness produced myriad conflicts, as when educated, refined, and wealthy
officers ("gentlemen") found themselves commanding a hard-drinking group of
fighters ("roughs")--a dynamic that often resulted in violence and even death. Based
on extensive research into heretofore ignored primary sources, The Gentlemen and the Roughs uncovers
holes in our understanding of the men who fought the Civil War and the society
that produced them.
About the Author
Raymond A. Schroth, S.J., is a Jesuit priest and a journalist. He is the author of six books, including Dante to Dead Man Walking: One Reader's Journey through the Christian Classics, and American Journey of Eric Sevareid. He has also written more than 300 articles and reviews on politics, religion, and the media, which have appeared in such publications as the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Newsday, and America, and he is an award-winning media critic for the National Catholic Reporter, for which he writes a regular column.