Is anti-Catholicism America's ‘last acceptable prejudice’, as some books of the same title claim? No, answers Maura Jane Farrelly. In her account of Anglo-American fear of Catholicism from the early colonial era up to the Civil War, Farrelly argues that anti-Catholicism played no small role in shaping American identity and values. Yet when American understandings of freedom changed, Catholicism no longer posed as great a threat. Farrelly's book introduces yesterday's anti-Catholicism with an eye to present-day concerns, particularly debates over the place of Muslims in America. The result is a concise, thought-provoking text that should prove useful in the classroom.

Anti-Catholicism’s first several chapters cover the colonial era, with chapter i explaining the political and theological differences between English Protestants and their Catholic counterparts. Chapter ii, on ‘Anti-Catholicism and colonial Catholics in the seventeenth century’, focuses on the short-lived experiment in toleration enjoyed by Catholic communities in Maryland. The middle chapters treat anti-Catholicism in the emergence of the United States. Chapter iii develops Farrelly's explanation of anti-Catholicism. She argues that genuine differences in Protestant and Catholic understandings of freedom undergirded fears of Catholicism, which in turn played no small part in Revolutionary rhetoric. In Chapter iv Farrelly examines ‘the surprising lack of anti-Catholicism in the early decades of America's existence’ due to early national commitment to the unalienable rights even of Catholics (p. xiv).

The final two chapters explain the rebirth of anti-Catholicism in response to rising German and Irish immigration in the 1820s through to the 1850s. Chapter v narrates this familiar story in the context of religious change – Farrelly argues that heightened anti-Catholicism was in part a symptom of traditionalist Protestants losing their cultural influence. Finally, chapter vi traces the emergence of nativist societies and political movements, arguing that the failure of the Know Nothing party reveals the limits of anti-Catholic bias. These limits become clearer in the epilogue, where Farrelly concludes that fear of Catholics finally waned in the twentieth century. As the earlier American connection between freedom and individual rights gave way to a more collectivist vision, this proved ‘more compatible with the corporate approach to freedom that the Catholic Church has always insisted upon’ (p. 192).

Anti-Catholicism is the latest volume in the Cambridge Essential Histories series, and it achieves its primary goal: introducing students to anti-Catholicism in all its varied dimensions, including religious, political, cultural, gendered and ethnic factors. Farrelly's expertise on colonial and Revolutionary era Catholics comes through clearly, and she ably narrates not only Protestant biases but the ways in which Catholics negotiated their place in American history. Farrelly writes with her audience in mind, clearly explaining her terms and narrating events in a straightforward, even colloquial style.

While one should not expect such a book to be comprehensive, at times it feels uneven. The history of the Carroll family, for example, receives significant space while other important episodes get short shrift. Given the significance of the Mexican-American War for nineteenth-century America, and the role played by anti-Catholicism in bringing about and executing the war, it may merit more than the few paragraphs it receives. Likewise, little attention is given to the French Revolution, which contributed to the early national waning of anti-Catholicism that Farrelly describes. Yet these are small quibbles. On the whole, the book combines texture and detail on the one hand with wide-ranging coverage on the other.

Of greater interest is Farrelly's prioritisation of anxiety, which functions as the categorical explanation in this narrative. Here, the history of anti-Catholicism is a story of Protestant fears, as colonists are ‘spooked’ by Acadian refugees, conservative ministers turn to anti-Catholic rhetoric as they lose cultural power, and paranoia and conspiracy drive best-selling anti-Catholic polemics. Much is explained in psychological terms: both seventeenth-century Puritans seeking a ‘City on a Hill’ and antebellum nationalists pursuing their ‘manifest destiny’ were driven by their ‘fear of Catholicism’ as well as ‘a fear of irrelevance’ (p. 175).

All of this is well and good as far as it goes, and any reader of anti-Catholic material cannot miss the predominant note of fear. But might an emphasis on anxiety risk downplaying the role of religious conviction? American anti-Catholicism was also funded by genuinely held theological beliefs, which were always interwoven with political, ethnic and gendered concerns. This is simply to state the obvious: for most of Protestant history, many have considered Catholicism not only wrong but evil – not just in error, but actually antiChristian. This apocalyptic understanding appeared to Protestants not only to be taught in Scripture but also demonstrably proven in the pages of history.

While religious rivalry and theological difference play a part in Farrelly's story, religious conviction is upstaged by the more compelling character of fear. This prioritisation has several effects. One is to leave aside those who do not neatly fit the category of status anxiety. In the first half of the nineteenth century, anti-Catholicism was picked up by black abolitionists, female educators and early women's rights activists, many of whom used anti-Catholic tropes to criticise or exhort their fellow Protestants. Yet these influential African Americans and women play no role in Farrelly's narrative.

And not all readers will be as sure that anti-Catholicism has become unacceptable. In recent years, American Catholics have faced new legal challenges surrounding their institutions and health care provision, increasingly pointed questions about their fitness to hold judicial office, and scathing condemnation of clerical sexual abuse and hierarchical failure. Whether deservedly or not, much discourse surrounding these controversies takes an explicitly anti-Catholic shape. From one perspective these criticisms may appear fully justified; from another, they look strikingly similar to the anti-Catholicism of a bygone era. Perhaps less has changed than we might think.

These questions only highlight the importance of the work. Farrelly has not only traced a critical theme over a broad chronological scope, but also offered clear arguments about the waxing and waning of anti-Catholicism, and her theses should readily lead to robust classroom discussions. The book should be strongly considered by teachers looking for a concise, readable and engaging text.