Offers one of the first comparative treatments of Protestant and Catholic history in nineteenth-century America.

1. Editor's preface S. Deborah Kang; 2. Introduction Jon Gjerde; 3. The Protestant conundrum Jon Gjerde; The Catholic conundrum Jon Gjerde; 4. Conversion and the West Jon Gjerde; 5. Schools and the state Jon Gjerde; 6. Protestant and Catholic critiques of family and women Jon Gjerde; 7. The American economy and social justice Jon Gjerde; 8. Epilogue S. Deborah Kang.

Jon Gjerde (February 25, 1953¿October 26, 2008) was an American historian and the Alexander F. and May T. Morrison Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. At Berkeley, he also served as chair of the History Department and Dean of the Division of Social Sciences in the College of Letters and Science. He is the author of the award-winning From Peasants to Farmers: The Migration from Balestrand, Norway, to the Upper Middle West and The Minds of the West: Ethnocultural Evolution in the Rural Middle West, 1830¿1917.