The Catholic Voter in American Politics: The Passing of the Democratic Monolith.

William B. Prendergast, The Catholic Voter in American Politics: The Passing of the Democratic Monolith. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1999. 260pp. $35.00 (cloth).

In nostalgic utterances of cradle Catholics you encounter devotion to family, church, and the Democratic Party. The influence of the last part of this Catholic "trinity" -- politics -- is the subject of William Prendergast's book. In it, he analyzes Catholic voting patterns from the election of 1844 -- the first presidential election where Catholics received significant attention -- to the interim elections of 1998 where Catholics represented "the largest swing vote in American politics" (218). The theoretical underpinnings of Prendergast's arguments focus on changes in the Catholic population, in political party identification, and in the political environment. The compelling narrative moves the reader from Catholic Democratic monolith through defections to the Republican ranks and concludes at a point where many Catholics covet their independent status.

Prendergast provides fair treatment to all political contests but is especially insightful in his discussion of four elections -- 1928, 1952, 1960, and 1984 -- where Catholics represented a powerful political bloc. In 1928 and 1960 a Catholic presidential candidate ignited creedal enthusiasms; and in 1952 and 1984 a significant shift in Catholics to the Republican party determined the outcome of the election. In the case of General Eisenhower's 1952 election, "the returns indicated that one of the staunchest Democratic constituencies [Catholics] had broken loose from its moorings" (120).

The text is divided along chronological lines, and the chapter breaks represent important milestones in American Catholic history. Prendergast opens with a sweeping and convincing historical profile of American Catholics ranging from their rising educational levels to the emergence of neo-conservative Catholic movements. The next two chapters focus on the Catholic immigrant experience between 1844 and 1860 ("first wave") and between 1880 and 1908 ("second wave"). These chapters clearly highlight the dynamics of political maturity among nineteenth-century Catholics from both waves of immigration. The immigrant period gave birth and nourishment to the Democratic monolith that marked Catholic identity and myth. The chapters on the twentieth century point out the cracks in the Catholic political veneer by reviewing major Catholic epochs: Alfred E. Smith, FDR and World War II, Ike, "Camelot" and chaos, and the homogenization of American Catholics. The last chapter includes a summary of Catholic political tendenci es in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and provides an informed prediction of Catholic voting patterns in the twenty-first century.

Prendergast frequently departs from the chronological narrative to focus on important divisions among Catholic voters as well as to evaluate key issues. In the final third of the book careful attention is afforded to feminism, Hispanic Catholics, the tendency among some Catholics to fall prey to "single-issue" voting, the politicization of abortion, and the ever-growing chasm between traditional and modern Catholics.

Despite some very convincing evidence that Catholics are moving en masse into the Republican Party (a valid conclusion given their heightened economic and educational levels), Prendergast, quoting from E. P. Dionne's "Catholics and the Democrats" provides a more nuanced conclusion to the Catholic political shift. "'Catholic ties to the Democrats are undoubtedly weaker, but there has yet to be a clear conversion of Catholics to the Republican cause."' The estrangement of Catholic voters from the Democrats he called "dealignment" rather than "realignment" (186).

The Catholic Voter in American Politics is carefully researched, provides understandab1e analyses of political statistics, and is clearly written. The text is an important reference for those interested in American Catholicism, politics, and the Democratic Party. Prendergast has filled a major gap in the historical record.

JAMES CARROLL is Assistant Professor in the Department of History, Political Science, and International Studies at Iona College.