| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.3

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Patriotism and Fraternalism in the Knights of Columbus: A History of the Fourth Degree. By Christopher J. Kauffman. (New York: Crossroad, 2001. xx, 174 pp. $19.95, ISBN 0-8245-1885-3.)

In 1982 Christopher J. Kauffman published his exemplary study of the Knights of Columbus, the preeminent Catholic men's organization. Eighteen years later he has written a second commissioned book on the fraternal order, this to commemorate the centenary of its Fourth Degree. Begun in response to anti-Catholic attacks in the 1890s, the highest degree of the fraternal order centered on patriotism and citizenship. Christopher Columbus, the order's patron, became the prototypical republican upon whose shoulders the Knights fashioned a civic myth that celebrated, in Columbus Day parades and other gatherings across the country, the inherent nationalism of American Catholics. The Knights were determined to show that Catholics, as spiritual sons of Columbus, had as much claim to citizenship as anyone. In their top hats and Prince Albert cutaway coats, the Fourth Degree Knights, serving as honor guards at ecclesiastical and civic festivals, became the most visible embodiment of those model Americans. . . .

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