Description
Book SynopsisObservations on the new American republic by an early president of Georgetown University Father Giovanni Antonio Grassi was the ninth president of Georgetown University and pioneered its transition into a modern institution, earning him the moniker Georgetown’s Second Founder. Originally published in Italian in 1818 and translated here into English for the first time, his News on the Present Condition of the Republic of the United States of North America records his rich observations of life in the young republic and the Catholic experience within it. When Grassi assumed his post as president in 1812, he found the university, known then as Georgetown College, to be in a “miserable state.” He immediately set out to enlarge and improve the institution, increasing the number of non-Catholics in the school, adding to the library’s holdings, and winning authority from Congress to confer degrees. Upon his return to Italy, Grassi published his News, which introduced Italians to the promise and contradictions of the American experiment in self-governance and offered perspectives on the social reality for Catholics in America. This book is a fascinating work for historians of Catholicism and of the Jesuits in particular.
Trade ReviewThis gem of a book warrants a wide readership for its insights into the role of Catholicism in the early republic. * America Magazine *
...Georgetown’s Second Founder is a required addition to the personal bookshelves of historians of the restored Society of Jesus, of modern Catholicism, and of the Early Republic, among other specialties. Thanks to Severino and Curran, Grassi’s century-old text has received the treatment in English it has long deserved. * Journal of Jesuit Studies *
Table of ContentsItalian map of the United States, ca. 1812–15 frontispiece Foreword Introduction: Father Giovanni Grassi, SJ, “Second Founder” of Georgetown University Acknowledgments Notizie 1. News on the Present Condition of the Republic of the United States of Northern America 2. On the Various Sects That Exist in the United States 3. On the Present Condition of the Catholic Religion in the United States A Contemporary Unicum: The North American Review Piece of 1823 Bibliography Table of All the Most Remarkable Things to Be Found within the Geography of the United States in North America Index
