According to most political and religious scholars and pundits, JFK's victory in 1960 symbolized America's evolution from a Protestant nation to a pluralist community that included Catholics as all citizens. However, if the presidential election of 1960 was indeed a turning point for American Catholics, how do we explain the failure of any Catholic - in over forty years - to repeat Kennedy's accomplishment? In this exhaustively researched study that fuses political, cultural, social and intellectual history, Thomas Carty challenges the assumption that JFK's successful campaign for the Presidency ended decades, if not centuries, of religious and political tension between American Catholics and Protestants, paving a new role for Catholics in American presidential politics.

Autorentext

THOMAS CARTY is Assistant Professor of History at Springfield College, Massachusetts, USA.

Inhalt

Introduction: Why Religion Dominated the 1960 Presidential Campaign Roots of Division Between Non-Catholic Americans: Religion and American Politics Before 1928 Rehearsing for 1960: Responses to Catholic Candidates for the Executive Office, 1928-1956 Nativist Roots of Resistance to a Catholic Presidential Candidate Religious Liberty and JFK's Pursuit of the 1960 Democratic Presidential Nomination Defining Religious Bigotry Pluralism and Political Strategy in the 1960 Presidential Election