Introduction

Originally published in 1988, this title looks at the importance of the Catholic school in American education from 1830 to 1980. The articles in this collection illuminate the patterns of development. The most prevalent theme is that of school controversy, involving either Catholic conflict with public education and the wider culture on the one hand, or internal dissension within the Catholic community regarding the desirability of separate schools on the other. Taken together, these essays serve as pieces of a mosaic, interesting in themselves yet corporately providing a comprehensive picture of the history of Catholic schooling in America. They remind us that these institutions grew up as a response to particular forces at work in the wider society as well as within the Catholic community itself.