On American Jesuits, Catholicism, and Higher Education
John McGreevy is the Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at Notre Dame and served as dean of the University’s College of Arts and Letters from 2008–2018. Specializing in modern political and religious history, he is the author of three books and has received major fellowships from the Mellon Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies, among others.
John joined host Ted Fox to talk about the most recent of those three books, American Jesuits and the World: How an Embattled Religious Order Made Modern Catholicism Global, which was published by Princeton University Press.
American Jesuits and the World focuses on the period after the nation’s founding, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when John says the Jesuits were viewed, often disparagingly, as “the most Catholic of all Catholics.” It was against this backdrop that they authored an American story with just as many layers as you would expect.

“With a Side of Knowledge” is a podcast produced at the University of Notre Dame. It features interviews with fascinating people from both Notre Dame and elsewhere that take place over brunch—or if we’re really in a pinch, coffee.
Learn MoreSeptember 26, 2019