"This book is intended to call attention to a number of important men in the history of American Catholicism and of the American nation generally. All were prominent figures in their time. Some held important national political positions and/or had a significant impact on national political debate, while others were better known on a regional basis. All share the curious, common fate of being largely unknown, or at least not frequently thought of, in our time. Their names not only seldom come up in works of American history and political theory but are hardly familiar even to their...