Spirited Lives: How Nuns Shaped Catholic Culture and American Life, 1836-1920

Made doubly marginal by their gender and by their religion, American nuns have rarely been granted serious scholarly attention. Instead, their lives and achievements have been obscured by myths or distorted by stereotypes. Placing nuns into the mainstream of American religious and women's history for the first time, Spirited Lives reveals their critical impact on the development of Catholic culture and, ultimately, the building of American society.
Focusing on the Sisters of St. Joseph of Ca...