Excommunicated From the Union: How the Civil War Created a Separate Catholic America

By William B. Kurtz

Anti-Catholicism has had a long presence in American history. The Civil War in 1861 gave Catholic Americans a chance to prove their patriotism once and for all. Exploring how Catholics sought to use their participation in the war to counteract religious and political nativism in the United States, Excommunicated from the Union reveals that while the war was an alienating experience for many of 200,000 Catholics who served, they still strove to construct a positive memory of their experiences in order to show that their religion was no barrier to their being loyal American citizens.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fordham University Press
• Release date: Nov 30, 2011
• ISBN: 9780823267538

William B. Kurtz

William B. Kurtz is managing director of the John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History at the University of Virginia and author of Excommunicated from the Union: How the Civil War Created a Separate Catholic America (Fordham University Press, 2015).