American Freedom and Catholic Power
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| Author | Paul Blanshard |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Published | 1949 |
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American Freedom and Catholic Power is an anti-Catholic book by American writer Paul Blanshard, published in 1949 by Beacon Press. Blanshard asserted that America had a "Catholic problem" in that the Church was an "undemocratic system of alien control". The book has been described as bigoted and "vicious",propaganda and as "the most unusual bestseller of 1949-1950". It was based on a series of articles that he had published in the magazine The Nation.
Blanshard's autobiography indicates that his precipitating concern in 1946, which propelled him to commence research, was the influence of Catholic doctrine upon the practice of medicine generally, and obstetrics specifically. Some reviewers thought that the book incorporated nativist sentiments into its anti-Catholicism, including that the Church was a foreign power in America determined to dominate the world. In the prologue, Blanshard said that he was not opposed to the Catholic religion or to Catholic Americans, but that the church's hierarchy had an undue influence on legislation, education and medical practice.
In the late 1940s Blanshard published a series of articles that questioned and criticized specific activities and goals of the Catholic Church in the United States. New York school libraries were pressured to cancel subscriptions to The Nation by Cardinal Francis Spellman, an action denounced by Eleanor Roosevelt. The series of articles formed the basis for the book published by Beacon Press in their book series entitled Series in Freedom and Power.
When the book was released, The New York Times refused to accept advertising for the book and many bookstores refused to carry it. However, the book sold 240,000 copies in its first edition. It was praised by John Dewey, Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell, Henry Sloane Coffin, and Horace Kallen as well as scholarly reviewers. A work of rebuttal, Catholicism and American Freedom was written by James M. O'Neill and published in 1952. Blanshard's rejoinder to O'Neill and others was the pamphlet My Catholic Critics. Blanshard published a second edition that updated the book. Blanshard was later a vocal admirer of John F. Kennedy.
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