Description:
The first book to examine the depictions of Catholics in American popular culture during the critical period between the Great Depression and the height of the Cold War. Looks at the popular films, TV shows, radio programs, and magazine coverage that re-imagined the Catholic role in American culture.
Brief description:
Anthony Burke Smith is assistant professor and Director of the Graduate Program in Religious Studies at the University of Dayton.
Review Quotes:
"Smith's ambitious and exemplary work demonstrates decisively for all time that Catholics were not only integral players in the formation of modern American popular culture, but that the role of Catholicism itself in the national popular culture was a major issue in the production of that same culture. . . . A wonderfully exciting book that will be widely hailed as a landmark achievement, confirm the author's stature as the leading scholar of Catholic popular culture, and be consulted by scholars and their students for decades to come."--James T. Fisher, author of Communion of Immigrants: A History of Catholics in America