"Curran's excellent book examines the complicated history of Catholics in America, including adoption of white supremacy as fundamental to their American identity. Their embrace of the Confederacy's Lost Cause mythology foreshadows their adherence to Trump's mythical 2020 election lost cause. It appeals to readers interested in the Civil War, religion, and race and ethnicity in American society."?Diane Batts Morrow, associate professor emerita, University of Georgia, and author of Persons of Color and Religious at the Same Time: The Oblate Sisters of Providence, 1828?1860

"Engagingly written and thoroughly researched, Curran's book sheds new light on both the most turbulent decades in American history and also the American Catholic past. Themselves the victims of discrimination and occasional mob violence, many Catholics in the mid-nineteenth century nonetheless defended slavery and even embraced the "Lost Cause." Curran provides the troubling particulars and posits equally troubling connections to present-day politics. A book sure to provoke discussion among general readers and specialists alike."?Leslie Woodcock Tentler, professor emerita of history, Catholic University of America