The 1960 presidential election, won ultimately by John F. Kennedy, was one of the closest and most contentious in American history. The country had never elected a Roman Catholic president, and the last time a Catholic had been nominated--New York Governor Al Smith in 1928--he was routed in the general election. From the outset, Kennedy saw the religion issue as the single most important obstacle on his road to the White House. He was acutely aware of, and deeply frustrated by, the possibility that his personal religious beliefs could keep him out of the White House. In The Making of a Catholic President, Shaun Casey tells the fascinating story of how the Kennedy campaign transformed the "religion question" from a liability into an asset, making him the first (and still only) Catholic president. Drawing on extensive archival research, including many never-before-seen documents, Casey takes us inside the campaign to show Kennedy's chief advisors--Ted Sorensen, John Kenneth Galbraith, Archibald Cox--grappling with the staunch opposition to the candidate's Catholicism. Casey also reveals, for the first time, many of the Nixon campaign's efforts to tap in to anti-Catholic sentiment, with the aid of Billy Graham and the National Association of Evangelicals, among others. The alliance between conservative Protestants and the Nixon campaign, he shows, laid the groundwork for the rise of the Religious Right. This book will shed light on one of the most talked-about elections in American history, as well as on the vexed relationship between religion and politics more generally. With clear relevance to our own political situation--where politicians' religious beliefs seem more important and more volatile than ever--The Making of a Catholic President offers rare insights into one of the most extraordinary presidential campaigns in American history.

According to most political and religious scholars and pundits, JFK's victory in 1960 symbolized America's evolution from a Protestant nation to a pluralist community that included Catholics as all citizens. However, if the presidential election of 1960 was indeed a turning point for American Catholics, how do we explain the failure of any Catholic - in over forty years - to repeat Kennedy's accomplishment? In this exhaustively researched study that fuses political, cultural, social and intellectual history, Thomas Carty challenges the assumption that JFK's successful campaign for the Presidency ended decades, if not centuries, of religious and political tension between American Catholics and Protestants, paving a new role for Catholics in American presidential politics.

According to most political and religious scholars and pundits, JFK's victory in 1960 symbolized America's evolution from a Protestant nation to a pluralist community that included Catholics as all citizens. However, if the presidential election of 1960 was indeed a turning point for American Catholics, how do we explain the failure of any Catholic - in over forty years - to repeat Kennedy's accomplishment? In this exhaustively researched study that fuses political, cultural, social and intellectual history, Thomas Carty challenges the assumption that JFK's successful campaign for the Presidency ended decades, if not centuries, of religious and political tension between American Catholics and Protestants, paving a new role for Catholics in American presidential politics.

The 1960 presidential election, won ultimately by John F. Kennedy, was one of the closest and most contentious in American history. The country had never elected a Roman Catholic president, and the last time a Catholic had been nominated--New York Governor Al Smith in 1928--he was routed in the general election. From the outset, Kennedy saw the religion issue as the single most important obstacle on his road to the White House. He was acutely aware of, and deeply frustrated by, the possibility that his personal religious beliefs could keep him out of the White House. In The Making of a Catholic President, Shaun Casey tells the fascinating story of how the Kennedy campaign transformed the "religion question" from a liability into an asset, making him the first (and still only) Catholic president. Drawing on extensive archival research, including many never-before-seen documents, Casey takes us inside the campaign to show Kennedy's chief advisors--Ted Sorensen, John Kenneth Galbraith, Archibald Cox--grappling with the staunch opposition to the candidate's Catholicism. Casey also reveals, for the first time, many of the Nixon campaign's efforts to tap in to anti-Catholic sentiment, with the aid of Billy Graham and the National Association of Evangelicals, among others. The alliance between conservative Protestants and the Nixon campaign, he shows, laid the groundwork for the rise of the Religious Right. This book will shed light on one of the most talked-about elections in American history, as well as on the vexed relationship between religion and politics more generally. With clear relevance to our own political situation--where politicians' religious beliefs seem more important and more volatile than ever--The Making of a Catholic President offers rare insights into one of the most extraordinary presidential campaigns in American history.

A powerful examination of the role of Catholicism in U.S. politics and in the life of Joseph R. Biden . After a dramatic election amid a raging pandemic, racial violence, economic collapse and historic national divisions that have threatened our democracy, Joe Biden succeeds Donald Trump as the 46th President of the United States. For Catholics, this is a momentous occasion in US public life, as he is the second Catholic to be elected to the nation's highest office, joining John Fitzgerald Kennedy. In 2021, Joe Biden becomes president in a very different situation than Kennedy's America. Today, Catholics play a much broader and more visible role in the public life of our country, and the triangle of relations between the White House, the Vatican, and the US Catholic Church is an essential dimension for understanding the political and religious urgency of this moment in our history. In this ground-breaking book, historian and theologian Dr. Massimo Faggioli provides an insightful overview of Catholicism in US politics, and its place as an anchor in the life of the man elected to lead the country at a decisive crossroads, an unprecedented moment in US history.

The 1960 election settled the question of whether a Catholic can be elected to the highest office in the land. The aim of this book is to report and evaluate the campaign charges against Catholicism and indicate what they reveal of contemporary American attitudes regarding (1) the relationship of religion to politics, (2) the compatibility of Catholicism and American freedom, (3) trends in interfaith dialogue, and (4) the expanding dimensions of the whole problem of religious liberty. Despite President Kennedy's election, familiar charges against Catholicism are very much alive, and this text draws attention to persistent underlying tensions which lend themselves to fruitful exploration or fatal exploitation. This book is a summons to reflection on the past, and a call to continuing public argument on issues the campaign of 1960 revealed to be still burning among us.

The candidacy of John F. Kennedy provoked widespread discussion of issues relating to church and state and to the role of Catholics in American politics. This text is the inside story of that dramatic campaign and is the first scholarly examination based on actual voting returns. It includes a detailed analysis of the vote in every state, revealing that religion affected the outcome of the election far more than previously thought. Kennedy lost more votes than he gained due to his religious affiliation, but by crafting a strong coalition, he prevailed in one of the closest races in presidential history.

This book chronologically analyzes fourteen key US Presidents, from Washington to Biden, to highlight how religion has informed or influenced their politics and policies. For years, leading scholars have largely neglected religion in presidential studies. Yet, religion has played a significant role in a number of critical presidencies in US history. This volume reveals the deep religious side to such presidents as Truman, Eisenhower, and Reagan, among others, and the impact that faith had on their administrations. Now in its fourth edition, this work includes analysis of Joe Biden as the second Catholic president in United States history and provides a timely update to a key text in the study of religion and the presidency.