Georgetown's Second Founder
 152 pp., 5.5 x 8.5 Hardcover ISBN: 9781647120436 (1647120438) eBook ISBN: 9781647120443 E-Inspection Request E-Inspection August 2021 LC: 2020008157 EXPLORE THIS TITLE DescriptionTable of Contents Reviews |
Georgetown's Second Founder
Fr. Giovanni Grassi's News on the Present Condition of the Republic of the United States of North America
Observations on the new American republic by an early president of Georgetown University Father Giovanni Antonio Grassi was the ninth president of Georgetown University and pioneered its transition into a modern institution, earning him the moniker Georgetown's Second Founder. Originally published in Italian in 1818 and translated here into English for the first time, his News on the Present Condition of the Republic of the United States of North America records his rich observations of life in the young republic and the Catholic experience within it. Father Giovanni Antonio Grassi was born in Schilpario, in the region of Lombardy, Italy, in 1775. He studied in the seminary of Bergamo and joined the Jesuits as a novice in 1799. In 1810 he traveled to the United States, where he met John Carroll, Bishop of Baltimore. Grassi served as president of Georgetown University from 1812 to 1817. He returned to Italy in 1817, where he died in Rome in 1849.
Reviews
"The publication of Fr. Grassi's 1818 account of his time in the United States gives us an Italian Jesuit version of Tocqueville, with useful observations on everything from slavery and the climate to housing design and religion. A marvelous achievement."—John McGreevy, Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History, University of Notre Dame and author of American Jesuits and the World: How An Embattled Religious Order Made Modern Catholicism Global "In his remarkably perceptive account of virtually every important aspect of the young United States, Giovanni Grassi anticipates de Tocqueville by two decades. Besides everything else, the book is a great read."—John W. O'Malley, SJ, university professor, Georgetown University "The role of the Society of Jesus in the history of American Catholicism cannot be overstated. Through the lens of the Italian Jesuit Giovanni Grassi-former rector of Georgetown College and superior of the Maryland Mission-we gain considerable insight into the place of Catholicism in the United States during the early nineteenth century. Combined with Robert Curran's informative introduction and afterword, Grassi's observations bring new light to the Jesuit experience of a nascent Catholic Church in a predominantly Protestant country."—Michael Pasquier, Jaak Seynaeve Professor of Christian Studies and associate professor of religious studies and history, Louisiana State University "This gem of a book warrants a wide readership for its insights into the role of Catholicism in the early republic."—America Magazine Table of Contents Italian map of the United States, ca. 1812-15 frontispiece Foreword Introduction: Father Giovanni Grassi, SJ, "Second Founder" of Georgetown University Acknowledgments Notizie 1. News on the Present Condition of the Republic of the United States of Northern America 2. On the Various Sects That Exist in the United States 3. On the Present Condition of the Catholic Religion in the United States A Contemporary Unicum: The North American Review Piece of 1823 Bibliography Table of All the Most Remarkable Things to Be Found within the Geography of the United States in North America Index |