All Good Books Are Catholic Books

Print Culture, Censorship, and Modernity in Twentieth-Century America

Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States, 20th Century
Cover of the book All Good Books Are Catholic Books by Una Cadegan, Cornell University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Una Cadegan ISBN: 9780801468971
Publisher: Cornell University Press Publication: September 15, 2013
Imprint: Cornell University Press Language: English
Author: Una Cadegan
ISBN: 9780801468971
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Publication: September 15, 2013
Imprint: Cornell University Press
Language: English

Until the close of the Second Vatican Council in 1965, the stance of the Roman Catholic Church toward the social, cultural, economic, and political developments of the twentieth century was largely antagonistic. Naturally opposed to secularization, skeptical of capitalist markets indifferent to questions of justice, confused and appalled by new forms of high and low culture, and resistant to the social and economic freedom of women—in all of these ways the Catholic Church set itself up as a thoroughly anti-modern institution. Yet, in and through the period from World War I to Vatican II, the Church did engage with, react to, and even accommodate various aspects of modernity. In All Good Books Are Catholic Books, Una M. Cadegan shows how the Church’s official position on literary culture developed over this crucial period.The Catholic Church in the United States maintained an Index of Prohibited Books and the National Legion of Decency (founded in 1933) lobbied Hollywood to edit or ban movies, pulp magazines, and comic books that were morally suspect. These regulations posed an obstacle for the self-understanding of Catholic American readers, writers, and scholars. But as Cadegan finds, Catholics developed a rationale by which they could both respect the laws of the Church as it sought to protect the integrity of doctrine and also engage the culture of artistic and commercial freedom in which they operated as Americans. Catholic literary figures including Flannery O’Connor and Thomas Merton are important to Cadegan’s argument, particularly as their careers and the reception of their work demonstrate shifts in the relationship between Catholicism and literary culture. Cadegan trains her attention on American critics, editors, and university professors and administrators who mediated the relationship among the Church, parishioners, and the culture at large.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Until the close of the Second Vatican Council in 1965, the stance of the Roman Catholic Church toward the social, cultural, economic, and political developments of the twentieth century was largely antagonistic. Naturally opposed to secularization, skeptical of capitalist markets indifferent to questions of justice, confused and appalled by new forms of high and low culture, and resistant to the social and economic freedom of women—in all of these ways the Catholic Church set itself up as a thoroughly anti-modern institution. Yet, in and through the period from World War I to Vatican II, the Church did engage with, react to, and even accommodate various aspects of modernity. In All Good Books Are Catholic Books, Una M. Cadegan shows how the Church’s official position on literary culture developed over this crucial period.The Catholic Church in the United States maintained an Index of Prohibited Books and the National Legion of Decency (founded in 1933) lobbied Hollywood to edit or ban movies, pulp magazines, and comic books that were morally suspect. These regulations posed an obstacle for the self-understanding of Catholic American readers, writers, and scholars. But as Cadegan finds, Catholics developed a rationale by which they could both respect the laws of the Church as it sought to protect the integrity of doctrine and also engage the culture of artistic and commercial freedom in which they operated as Americans. Catholic literary figures including Flannery O’Connor and Thomas Merton are important to Cadegan’s argument, particularly as their careers and the reception of their work demonstrate shifts in the relationship between Catholicism and literary culture. Cadegan trains her attention on American critics, editors, and university professors and administrators who mediated the relationship among the Church, parishioners, and the culture at large.

More books from Cornell University Press

Cover of the book The Worlds of Langston Hughes by Una Cadegan
Cover of the book The Impossible Border by Una Cadegan
Cover of the book The Poetry of Everyday Life by Una Cadegan
Cover of the book Solidarity Transformed by Una Cadegan
Cover of the book Strategic Adjustment and the Rise of China by Una Cadegan
Cover of the book 42 by Una Cadegan
Cover of the book Defining Boundaries in al-Andalus by Una Cadegan
Cover of the book The Five by Una Cadegan
Cover of the book The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Una Cadegan
Cover of the book Taming the Disorderly City by Una Cadegan
Cover of the book Where Night Is Day by Una Cadegan
Cover of the book The Petroleum Triangle by Una Cadegan
Cover of the book Dagger John by Una Cadegan
Cover of the book Food Co-ops in America by Una Cadegan
Cover of the book Euripides' Revolution under Cover by Una Cadegan
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy