William J. Phalen

William Phalen's work goes beyond just the relationship between American Evangelical Protestantism and European Immigrants. In American history the Protestant was first on the scene (excluding Native Americans) and had set up a way of life to reflect their beliefs. The Protestants biggest fear was that the Catholic would come shortly after and force their allegiance to Rome on them. While the Protestant vs. Catholic situation was already occurring in Europe for the past 300 years the dynamic was different in America since the Catholics were new to the scene. When Catholic immigrants started arrive on the shores of America the protestants had a strong reaction against it, fearing that America would shortly thereafter become a nation with a Catholic state religion. It is the author's contention that the reason for the intense backlash goes beyond the vast religious differences in the basic beliefs between Protestants and Catholics and he attempts to substantiate this claim through many quotations from Protestant writings and sermons. The book is reasonably thorough and takes the reader through various subjects (cities, politics, the Irish, education, temperance and others). The writing is easy to follow and allows the reader to understand the basic forces molding the view of European Immigrants during this time frame. I recommend this book to anyone who would like to understand the basic mindset being set forth toward immigration during this time frame.… (más)