Dreadful conversions : the making of a Catholic socialist / John C. Cort.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cort, John C.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cort, John C.

Socialists--United States--Biography.

Socialists.

United States.

Church and social problems--Catholic Church--United States.

Church and social problems.

Church and social problems--Catholic Church.

Genre:

Biographies.

Autobiographies.

Physical Description:

xv, 355 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Fordham University Press, 2003.

Summary:

For more than 60 years, John Cort has been at the center of the progressive social movements of our time. Writer, reporter, teacher, activist, Cort has spent his life fighting good fights, whether on a Boston newspaper, with the Peace Corps in the Philippines, as a labor leader, or in dozens of campaigns for justice, peace, and human rights. John Cort's story is the chronicle of an exemplary life and a vivid, personal history of American radicalism across virtually every major struggle. At its heart, this is also the story of what it means to take seriously the distinctively radical Catholic vision that informs American political and religious life. It started in 1935, when Cort converted to Catholicism as a Harvard undergraduate. A year later, he was in New York City on the staff of The Catholic Worker, working with such legendary figures as Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. Plunged into the class wars of the Depression, Cort began a 20-year commitment to organizing workers, notably through the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists.

Later, Cort served many social action causes while continuing to teach, report, and write. Whether running a Model Cities program, a newspaper guild, or a homeless shelter, or as a delegate to a world apostolic congress, Cort brought to life in his radicalism and his socialism the teachings of Catholic activism embodied most vividly by Dorothy Day and John XXIII. Dreadful Conversions is not only an insider's chronicle of Catholic activism and radicalism through much of the twentieth century. It's also a unique primer in Catholic social theory, told in the chapters of John Cort's own life. Quirky, personal, distinctive, his memoir captures one of the great stories of our American century -- and tells it in a voice no one can forget.

Contents:

1. Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin 1

2. The Labor Movement 23

3. Flashback: Home 36

4. Flashback: School Days 47

5. Flashback: The Bizarre Conversion 57

6. The ACTU and the CIO 76

7. Racketeers and Kennedys 105

8. Flashback: Time to Think 128

9. The ACTU and the Stalinists 144

10. The Virgin Business Agent 174

11. The Miracle of Good Pope John 185

12. First and Last Hurrahs 201

13. Pursuing Peace in the Philippines 217

14. Making War on Poverty I 231

15. The Black Experience 244

16. Making War on Poverty II 274

17. How the Females Put an End to Male Oppression 284

18. The Second Conversion 296

19. Final Conversations and Quotations 318

Appendix Can Good Come from Evil? Yes 329.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [335]-346) and index.

ISBN:

082322256X

OCLC:

51607540