Synopses & Reviews
This volumes explores the whole range of Alexis Tocqueville's ideas, from his political, literary and sociological theories to his concept of history, his religious beliefs, and his philosophical doctrines. Among the topics considered are: Tocqueville's beliefs about foreign policy as applied to American democracy; Tocqueville and Machiavelli on the art of being free; Tocqueville and the historical sociology of state; virtue and politics in Tocqueville; Tocqueville's debt to Rousseau and Pascal; Tocqueville's analysis of the role of religion in preserving American democracy; Tocqueville and American literary critics; and Tocqueville and the postmodern refusal of history. The different approaches to Tocqueville's classical work represented in this book, combined with the frequent use of unpublished sources, present a fresh and renewed vision of his classic Democracy in America, reinforcing after a century and a half its reputation as the most modern, provocative, and profound attempt to explain the nature of democracy.
Contributing to the volume are: Pierre Birnbaum (University of Sorbonne), Herbert Dittgen (University of Goettingen), Joseph Alulis (Lake Forest College), Dalmacio Negro (Universidad Complutense, Madrid), Peter A. Lawler (Berry College), Catherine Zuckert (Carleton College), Francesco de Sanctis (Naples University), Hugh Brogan (University of Essex), Cushing Strout (Cornell University), Gisela Schlueter (Universitaet Hannover), Roger Boesche (Occidental College), Edward T. Gargan (University of Wisconsin), and James T. Schleifer (College of New Rochelle).
Review
"A unique collection of primary sources that everyone interested in the presence and contributions of Catholics in America should read. With its multidisciplinary breadth, this volume truly represents Catholic Studies."
"This rich documentary collection thematically engages U.S. Catholicism both in the life of the nation and in the lives of everyday believers. It is a welcome single-volume reference of primary documents on American Catholicism suitable for course adoption."
“Mark Massa and Catherine Osborne have performed a great service in assembling this reader. They not only bring together seventy documents that capture the breadth and depth of the American Catholic expericen, but they also provide a useful conceptual framework for understanding them.“
Review
"Nolla makes a strong presentation in gathering scholarly surveys of Alexis de Tocqueville's theories. Students of democratic theory will find it provoking." -Bookwatch,
Review
"This rich documentary collection thematically engages U.S. Catholicism both in the life of the nation and in the lives of everyday believers. It is a welcome single-volume reference of primary documents on American Catholicism suitable for course adoption." -Timothy Matovina,University of Notre Dame
Review
“Mark Massa and Catherine Osborne have performed a great service in assembling this reader. They not only bring together seventy documents that capture the breadth and depth of the American Catholic expericen, but they also provide a useful conceptual framework for understanding them.“
-American Catholic Studies,
Synopsis
Catholics were among the early Spanish explorers to the "New World," and they have a long and rich history in the United States. By taking account of significant letters, diaries, theological reflections, and other primary documents, we can listen to the voices of what real Catholics in this country have thought, believed, feared, and dreamed.
American Catholic History makes available original documents produced in North America from the earliest missionary voyages in the sixteenth century up to the present day. The texts have been selected to illuminate the complex history, beliefs, and practices of what has become North American Roman Catholicism. They are prefaced by brief editorial introductions which provide historical and biographical context for the texts. They illuminate broad themes in the development of the tradition, from its grappling with new frontiers to its long-time status as outside mainstream culture, and from its intellectual life and political engagement to patterns of worship and spirituality.
American Catholic History offers an overview of the American Catholic experience from both the "top down" of institutional and intellectual history as well as from the "bottom up" of social, devotional, women's and ethnic histories.
Synopsis
An overview in primary documents of almost four hundred years of the American Catholic experience
Catholics were among the early Spanish explorers to the "New World," and they have a long and rich history in the United States. By taking account of significant letters, diaries, theological reflections, and other primary documents, we can listen to the voices of what real Catholics in this country have thought, believed, feared, and dreamed.
American Catholic History makes available original documents produced in North America from the earliest missionary voyages in the sixteenth century up to the present day. The texts have been selected to illuminate the complex history, beliefs, and practices of what has become North American Roman Catholicism. They are prefaced by brief editorial introductions which provide historical and biographical context for the texts. They illuminate broad themes in the development of the tradition, from its grappling with new frontiers to its long-time status as outside mainstream culture, and from its intellectual life and political engagement to patterns of worship and spirituality.
American Catholic History offers an overview of the American Catholic experience from both the "top down" of institutional and intellectual history as well as from the "bottom up" of social, devotional, women's and ethnic histories.
Synopsis
Catholics were among the early Spanish explorers to the "New World," and they have a long and rich history in the United States. By taking account of significant letters, diaries, theological reflections, and other primary documents, we can listen to the voices of what real Catholics in this country have thought, believed, feared, and dreamed.
American Catholic History makes available original documents produced in North America from the earliest missionary voyages in the sixteenth century up to the present day. The texts have been selected to illuminate the complex history, beliefs, and practices of what has become North American Roman Catholicism. They are prefaced by brief editorial introductions which provide historical and biographical context for the texts. They illuminate broad themes in the development of the tradition, from its grappling with new frontiers to its long-time status as outside mainstream culture, and from its intellectual life and political engagement to patterns of worship and spirituality.
American Catholic History offers an overview of the American Catholic experience from both the "top down" of institutional and intellectual history as well as from the "bottom up" of social, devotional, women's and ethnic histories.
About the Author
Mark Massa, S.J., is the Karl Rahner Professor of Theology and the co-director of the Curran Center for American Catholic Studies at Fordham University. He is the author of
Catholics and American Culture and
Anti-Catholicism in America.
Catherine Osborne is a doctoral student at Fordham University.