
Salacious Convent Exposés Were the Most Popular Books in Antebellum America - samclemens
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/19th-century-covent-exposes-protestants-catholics-nuns-sin
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ThinkingGuy
An edition of one of the titles discussed in the article, "The Awful
Disclosures of Maria Monk," is available at Project Gutenberg here:

[http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8095](http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8095)

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dmckeon
For a recent view that covers this troubling period, see:

America Aflame - How the Civil War Created a Nation, by David Goldfield

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PhantomGremlin
I wouldn't normally read a story like this, but for some reason I clicked.

Apparently anti-Catholic books were popular in the 1830's thru the Civil War.
One very popular one " _had been ghostwritten by a group of anti-Catholic men_
". A lot of this sentiment was because " _Protestant America was being
transformed by Catholic immigrants, and the Catholic Church was becoming the
largest single religious institution in the country_ ".

Just something to think about in light of the current islamophobia about
Muslim immigration to the USA.

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pkinsky
It's probably important to remember that despite the anti-Catholic hysteria
the Church did have a few issues. For example:
[http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-mass-grave-
ireland-201703...](http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-mass-grave-
ireland-20170303-story.html)

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emmelaich
What issue does that story raise? I mean, any besides the obvious that it is
not ideal to bury the dead without having a record?

