Parish Boundaries

Steeples topped by crosses still dominate neighborhood skylines in many American cities, silent markers of local worlds rarely examined by historians. In Parish Boundaries, John McGreevy chronicles the history of these Catholic parishes and connects their unique place in the urban landscape to the course of American race relations in the twentieth century. In vivid portraits of parish life in Boston, Chicago, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, and other cities, McGreevy examines the contacts and conflicts between Euro-American Catholics and their African-American neighbors. He demonstrates how…