Overview

Full Product Details

9780268021634

Table of Contents

Reviews

“Continuing his plan to use the University of Notre Dame as a mirror of the travails and triumphs of Catholics in mid-20th-century America, a task he began in the first volume of this history, Burns contends that by 1934 Catholics were viewed as both very religious and very patriotic. By the following year, however, and during and just after World War II, the notion that American Catholics were just as loyal and patriotic as any other group of Americans began to be seriously challenged. The possibly conflicted interests of American Catholics became evident as they themselves and American Catholic universities tried to reconcile the president’s foreign policies with Church interests abroad. Such possibly conflicted interests also resulted in an enlarged nativist fear of Catholic cultural, educational, and political aggression, which would remain part of the American scene until the outpouring of national grief following the Kennedy assassination. This meticulously researched and skillfully written volume is a welcome addition to academic and larger communitiy libraries.“ —Library Journal, October 15, 2000 “[D]escribes the transformation of the University by the presence of the military and the post-war influx of veterans; the spectacular success of Frank Leahy’s championship football teams; and the new style of leadership, which transformed the University into a modern research-based Catholic university.” —Theology Digest “Burns has succeeded in combining an institutional history with a detailed personal account of the people that made Notre Dame what it is. His greatest accomplishment has been to combine over two decades of archival sources, public sources, and interviews in a manner that minimizes neither the university nor its people. The result is a book that will be of interest to scholars in educational history, cultural studies, and religion.” —History of Education Quarterly “[A] monumental work of scholarship that is useful to alumni, people interested in Notre Dame, and students of twentieth century Catholic education and history. [E]xtensively and professionally researched.... The text is well written in a prose that is easy to read and engages the reader. “ —Holy Cross History

Burns, a teacher and administrator at Notre Dame for four decades, has written an entertaining, useful history of the university from its founding in 1842 through 1934. The first section concentrates on the institution's growing pains, including the debate over hiring lay faculty and the beginnings of the phenomenally successful football program under Knute Rockne. The second section treats the virulent anti-Catholic sentiment of the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana and its influence on the university and its football team, whose national championships gave American Catholics something to be proud of as they moved toward assimilation into the mainstream culture. The third section examines the impact of the Great Depression on the university's finances and enrollment and the effect of Rockne's untimely death in a plane crash in 1931. This book is an important contribution to the history of one of America's most important Catholic universities, a story that often mirrors the history of American Catholics in the 19th and 20th centuries. Highly recommended. -- Pius Murray, Pope John XXIII National Seminary, Weston, MA

Burns, a teacher and administrator at Notre Dame for four decades, has written an entertaining, useful history of the university from its founding in 1842 through 1934. The first section concentrates on the institution's growing pains, including the debate over hiring lay faculty and the beginnings of the phenomenally successful football program under Knute Rockne. The second section treats the virulent anti-Catholic sentiment of the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana and its influence on the university and its football team, whose national championships gave American Catholics something to be proud of as they moved toward assimilation into the mainstream culture. The third section examines the impact of the Great Depression on the university's finances and enrollment and the effect of Rockne's untimely death in a plane crash in 1931. This book is an important contribution to the history of one of America's most important Catholic universities, a story that often mirrors the history of American Catholics in the 19th and 20th centuries. Highly recommended.--Pius Murray, Pope John XXIII National Seminary, Weston, MA

Author Information

Robert E. Burns came to the University of Notre Dame in 1957 without previous exposure to Catholic education or commitment to it. He remained at the University for 39 years, serving as a teacher, working historian, and administrator of the College of Arts and Letters. He is retired and lives in Sebastian, Florida with his wife.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available