From 1910 to the end of World War I, American society witnessed a tremendous outpouring of books, pamphlets, and especially newspapers espousing virulently anti-Catholic themes and calling on readers to recognize the danger of Catholicism to the American republic. By 1915 the most popular anti-Catholic newspaper, The Menace, boasted over 1.6 million weekly readers. Justin Nordstrom's Danger on the Doorstep examines for the first time the rise and abrupt decline of anti-Catholic literature during the Progressive Era, as well as the issues and motivations that informed anti-Catholic writers and their "Romanist" opponents. Nordstrom explores the connection between anti-Catholicism and nationalism from 1910-1919. He argues that the anti-Catholic literature that occupied such a prominent place in the cultural landscape derived its popularity by infusing long-standing anti-Catholic traditions with the emerging themes of progressivism, masculinity, and nationalism. Nordstrom demonstrates that in the pages of anti-Catholic texts, Catholicism emerged as a manifestation of and a scapegoat for the dangers of modernity-including rampant urbanization, immigration, political corruption, and the proliferation of power conglomerates. Samples of Menace cartoons underscore Nordstrom's arguments. Danger on the Doorstep also examines Catholics' vigorous and highly-organized responses to journalistic attacks in the 1910s, ranging from lawsuits to widespread public relations campaigns. According to Nordstrom, the unraveling of anti-Catholic print literature by the end of the 1910s and the growing public presence of American Catholicism suggest that Catholic claims to full citizenship had trumped opponents' assertions of conspiracy. This fascinating look at an understudied episode of anti-Catholic radicalism will be of interest to scholars and students of religious history, popular culture, and journalism.

The Provisions of War examines how soldiers, civilians, communities, and institutions have used food and its absence as both a destructive weapon and a unifying force in establishing governmental control and cultural cohesion during times of conflict. Historians as well as scholars of literature, regional studies, and religious studies problematize traditional geographic boundaries and periodization in this essay collection, analyzing various conflicts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries through a foodways lens to reveal new insights about the parameters of armed interactions.The subjects covered are as varied and inclusive as the perspectives offered-ranging from topics like military logistics and animal disease in colonial Africa, Indian vegetarian identity, and food in the counterinsurgency of the Malayan Emergency, to investigations of hunger in Egypt after World War I and American soldiers' role in the making of US-Mexico borderlands. Taken together, the essays here demonstrate the role of food in shaping prewar political debates and postwar realities, revealing how dietary adjustments brought on by military campaigns reshape national and individual foodways and identities long after the cessation of hostilities.

From 1910 to the end of World War I, American society witnessed a tremendous outpouring of books, pamphlets, and especially newspapers espousing virulently anti-Catholic themes and calling on readers to recognize the danger of Catholicism to the American republic. By 1915 the most popular anti-Catholic newspaper, The Menace, boasted over 1.6 million weekly readers. Justin Nordstrom's Danger on the Doorstep examines for the first time the rise and abrupt decline of anti-Catholic literature during the Progressive Era, as well as the issues and motivations that informed anti-Catholic writers and their "Romanist" opponents. Nordstrom explores the connection between anti-Catholicism and nationalism from 1910-1919. He argues that the anti-Catholic literature that occupied such a prominent place in the cultural landscape derived its popularity by infusing long-standing anti-Catholic traditions with the emerging themes of progressivism, masculinity, and nationalism. Nordstrom demonstrates that in the pages of anti-Catholic texts, Catholicism emerged as a manifestation of and a scapegoat for the dangers of modernity-including rampant urbanization, immigration, political corruption, and the proliferation of power conglomerates. Samples of Menace cartoons underscore Nordstrom's arguments. Danger on the Doorstep also examines Catholics' vigorous and highly-organized responses to journalistic attacks in the 1910s, ranging from lawsuits to widespread public relations campaigns. According to Nordstrom, the unraveling of anti-Catholic print literature by the end of the 1910s and the growing public presence of American Catholicism suggest that Catholic claims to full citizenship had trumped opponents' assertions of conspiracy. This fascinating look at an understudied episode of anti-Catholic radicalism will be of interest to scholars and students of religious history, popular culture, and journalism.