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A Critical Period in American Catholicism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Jay P. Dolan
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Extract

Historians are fond of looking back over the panorama of the past and writing about periods of cultural change that altered the continuity of history. The age of discovery and the rise of the city are phrases that describe such pivotal epochs. These are not Madison Avenue-inspired book titles, but legitimate interpretative descriptions of past ages that provide a key to understanding the development of American civilization. Although the history of American Catholicism does not lend itself to such epochal descriptions, interpretative concepts are applicable in this area of study as well and they can provide useful keys to the analysis of the past.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 35 , Issue 4 , October 1973 , pp. 523 - 536
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1973

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