When John Kennedy ran for president, some Americans thought a Catholic couldn't--or shouldn't--win the White House. Credit Bing Crosby, among others, that he did.

For much of American history, Catholics' perceived allegiance to an international church centered in Rome excluded them from full membership in society, a prejudice as strong as those against blacks and Jews. Now Anthony Burke Smith shows how the intersection of the mass media and the visually rich culture of Catholicism changed that Protestant perception and, in the process, changed American culture.

Smith examines...