Reviews
"O'Donnell provides a lively narrative of an age and ethos of Catholicism, of an experience that is perhaps alien to children today but still recognizable."—D. A. Brown, emeritus, California State University, Fullerton, Choice Connect
"O'Donnell is an engaging, clear writer and combines autobiographical and historical details to effectively illustrate the historical experience of growing up Catholic in the mid-twentieth century."—Journal of American History
"As a retrospective on the Catholic memoir of those who came of age in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, it offers a unique window."—Catholic Library World
"O'Donnell provides a lively narrative of an age and ethos of Catholicism, of an experience that is perhaps alien to children today but still recognizable. Recommended for lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers."—Choice
"Ingrained Habits weaves together with subtle sensitivity the author's contemporary Catholicism and the memories of some of America's greatest writers. Their mid-century Catholicism is a sensual, tactile world of candles burning in grandmother's bedroom and musings about the power of the swallowed host. O'Donnell warmly evokes the overlapping worlds of church, family, and school that structured Catholic life for decades. Ingrained Habits is a must read for anyone who wants a textured portrayal of how a religion touches both body and soul."—Colleen McDannell, author of The Spirit of Vatican II: A History of Catholic Reform in America
"Ingrained Habits offers readers a new way of understanding what it meant to grow up Catholic in the mid-twentieth century. Using a variety of memoirs and novels—some of which are relatively unknown to many—O'Donnell offers a fresh approach to documenting the ways Catholicism in the United States was lived in the school, the home, and the community during the years immediately preceding Vatican II. The book is a welcome addition to the growing field of American Catholic Studies."—Margaret McGuinness, Professor of Religion, La Salle University
"Deftly captures the cultural memory of those who grew up with the structures and sway of mid-century Catholicism. Drawing on memoirs and other personal accounts, O'Donnell reveals how the experiences of parish, family, and neighborhood helped to forge an indelible sense of Catholic identity among members of that generation. It's a story whose cultural repercussions have had a profound influence on the history of U.S. Catholicism and which continues to bear on contemporary debates within the church today."—Thomas Rzeznik, Seton Hall University
"This study is fascinating for its focus not only on church and school but also on family neighborhood as components of Catholic religious belongingDrawing on key primary sources, [O'Donnell] portrays in vivid strokes a now-fading but powerfully intimate and insular world of American Catholic families devoted to family prayer, veneration of saints and icons, conservative sexual and gender values, and the advancement of Catholic catechism and cultural values."—Journal of American Ethnic History
"O'Donnell's insightful, elegantly written account of a particular 'cultural Catholicism' makes a valuable contribution, capturing the 'feel' of European American Catholicism in this period It is especially effective in opening a window on women's experience of what O'Donnell calls 'Catholic culture.' It is highly recommended."—Catholic Historical Review
