American Freedom And Catholic Power, Second Edition

American Freedom and Catholic Power is an anti-Catholic[1] book by American writer Paul Blanshard, published in 1949 by Beacon Press. Blanshard asserted that America had a "Catholic problem" in that the Church was an "undemocratic system of alien control". The book has been described as propaganda[2] and as "the most unusual bestseller of 1949–1950".[3] Some reviewers thought that the book incorporated nativist sentiments into its anti-Catholicism, including that the Church was a foreign power in America determined to dominate the world.[4][5] In the prologue, Blanshard said that he was not opposed to the Catholic religion or to Catholic Americans, but that the church's hierarchy had an undue influence on legislation, education and medical practice.
The book began as a controversial series of articles in The Nation that set the Archbishop of New York against Eleanor Roosevelt. Despite some resistance, it became a bestseller, winning praise from well-known intellectuals. Catholic writers denounced it as bigoted and based on longstanding Protestant bias.