Common Threads: A Cultural History of Clothing in American Catholicism

A well-illustrated cultural history of the apparel worn by American Catholics, Sally Dwyer-McNulty’s Common Threads reveals the transnational origins and homegrown significance of clothing in developing identity, unity, and a sense of respectability for a major religious group that had long struggled for its footing in a Protestant-dominated society often openly hostile to Catholics. Focusing on those who wore the most visually distinct clothes — priests, women religious, and schoolchildren...