| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 95.4

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 95.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

The Faithful: A History of Catholics in America. By James M. O'Toole. (Cambridge: Belknap, 2008. 376 pp. $27.95, ISBN 978-0-674-02818-0.)
In this wide-ranging, informative, and interesting book, James M. O'Toole recounts the story of the Catholic church in America through the perspective of the American Catholic laity—"the faithful"—Catholic lay men and women who have remained loyal to the church, notwithstanding its many controversies and imperfections, throughout its long institutional presence in the United States.	1
Writing in the aftermath of Catholicism's most recent institutional crisis—the clergy sexual abuse scandals and the decades-long cover up by some American bishops—O'Toole's presentist intention is readily apparent. He wants to demonstrate that the American church has constantly faced the challenge of change and that in most instances the resulting transformation has been affirmative, especially when it has resulted in more transparency and accountability on the part of the clergy and hierarchy, and greater lay responsibility and participation in church affairs.	. . .

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