The two most recent selections by the Catholic Book Club couldn’t have been more different: A look at Thomas Jefferson’s quixotic attempt to rewrite the Bible, and Niall Williams’s richly evocative novel about a small village in the west of Ireland.
History
Posted inArts & Culture, Ideas
When America magazine rejected William Faulkner, J.K. Rowling and Taylor Swift from our pages
Going through old files, America’s editors found a few interesting submissions (and rejections).
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Inside the very Catholic history of college basketball
John Gasaway examines the entire history of Catholic college basketball in the United States. We see just how many different teams, coaches and athletes have contributed to a reputation for basketball excellence, from the University of San Francisco to Georgetown, Gonzaga and Villanova.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Pope Francis and the dehumanizing nature of contemporary economies
Two recent books by Benjamin McKean and Vincent Bevins show the violence done to developing countries in the name of economic prosperity and U.S. political hegemony.
Posted inFaith, Faith and Reason
Privacy is the virtue that Americans love the most and understand the least
While we seem to take privacy seriously as a culture, in reality we allow unfettered access to our personal information in countless ways.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
When the Irish fought for Mexico against America: the little-known legend of the ‘San Patricios’
From 1846 to 1848, in the worst years of the potato famine in Ireland and during mass emigration to the United States, one of the toughest units of the Mexican armed forces battling the invaders from “El Norte” was the Saint Patrick Battalion, known in Mexico as the ‘San Patricios.’
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
Remembering Margaret Snyder, Catholic feminist pioneer
A prominent figure in United Nations efforts to help women in Africa escape poverty, Margaret Snyder was inspired by her parents and by Catholic mentors from her hometown.
Posted inArts & Culture, Film
A great Catholic film from the late Christopher Plummer
“The Scarlet and The Black,” available on Amazon Prime, tells the story of an Irish priest, Msgr. Hugh O’Flaherty, who was in the Vatican diplomatic service in World War II.
Posted inFaith, Features
St. Ignatius was against women Jesuits. Do his arguments still hold up?
Saint Ignatius was opposed to women Jesuits for reasons that were cultural, practical and canonical, but other Jesuits were not. The question was a hot topic in the early Society.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: In the crosshairs of the F.B.I.
Aaron J. Leonard’s new book draws from almost 10,000 pages of F.B.I. files on an array of folk artists. It aims to illustrate the considerable impact that the U.S. government’s campaign against Communism had on folk artists in the 1940s and early ’50s.