Examination of immigrant Catholic influences on the traditions of Catholicism in the United States. A collection of largely biographical segments dedicated to certain influential, thought-provoking, and paradigm-shifting American Catholics from the middle of the twentieth century. The influence of these thinkers on a country not without skeptics or critics of Roman Catholicism. From UNC Press: "James Fisher argues that Catholic culture was transformed when products of the 'immigrant church,' largely inspired by converts like Dorothy Day, launched a variety of spiritual, communitarian, and literary experiments. He also explores the life and works of Thomas A. Dooley and Jack Kerouac to show that their experiences signaled a new Catholic appreciation of the American tradition of creative freedom." Contains the following chapters: "The Conversion of Dorothy Day" "Fools for Christ" : Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker movement, 1933-1949 The Catholic workers and Catholic culture, 1933-1949 The limits of personalism : "Integrity" and the Marycrest Community, 1946-1956 Thomas A. Dooley and the romance of Catholic anticommunism A Catholic errand in the wilderness : Tom Dooley in Laos and America, 1956-1961 Jack Kerouac and Thomas Merton, the last Catholic romantics.
