Dagger John
Archbishop John Hughes and the Making of Irish America
by John Loughery
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Pub Date Mar 15 2018 | Archive Date Mar 15 2018
Cornell University Press | Three Hills
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Description
Acclaimed biographer John Loughery tells the story of John Hughes, son of Ireland, friend of William Seward and James Buchanan, founder of St. John’s College (now Fordham University), builder of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue, pioneer of parochial-school education, and American diplomat. As archbishop of the Archdiocese of New York in the 1840 and 1850s and the most famous Roman Catholic in America, Hughes defended Catholic institutions in a time of nativist bigotry and church burnings and worked tirelessly to help Irish Catholic immigrants find acceptance in their new homeland. His galvanizing and protecting work and pugnacious style earned him the epithet Dagger John. When the interests of his church and ethnic community were at stake, Hughes acted with purpose and clarity.
In Dagger John, Loughery reveals Hughes’s life as it unfolded amid turbulent times for the religious and ethnic minority he represented. Hughes the public figure comes to the fore, illuminated by Loughery’s retelling of his interactions with, and responses to, every major figure of his era, including his critics (Walt Whitman, James Gordon Bennett, and Horace Greeley) and his admirers (Henry Clay, Stephen Douglas, and Abraham Lincoln). Loughery peels back the layers of the public life of this complicated man, showing how he reveled in the controversies he provoked and believed he had lived to see many of his goals achieved until his dreams came crashing down during the Draft Riots of 1863 when violence set Manhattan ablaze.
To know "Dagger" John Hughes is to understand the United States during a painful period of growth as the nation headed toward civil war. Dagger John’s successes and failures, his public relationships and private trials, and his legacy in the Irish Catholic community and beyond provide context and layers of detail for the larger history of a modern culture unfolding in his wake.
Advance Praise
"As the archbishop of the nation's largest city, John Hughes was a controversial figure known for his intensity and his willingness to pick a political fight. Dagger John puts Hughes squarely in the middle of the political, social, and ecclesiastical context of his times. The result is an engagingly written and fair appraisal of the feisty archbishop."- Thomas J. Shelley, author of Fordham: A History of the Jesuit University of New York, 1841–2003
"This delightfully written book introduces the transformational Catholic figure, John Hughes. John Loughery's astute analysis and adept storytelling conjure not just the extraordinary man himself but the boisterous social and political worlds through which he moved. Anyone who wants to understand the place of the Irish in nineteenth-century America must read Dagger John."- Catherine O’Donnell, author of Elizabeth Seton: A Life"Archbishop Hughes, a major player in nineteenthth-century U.S. history, finally receives his due in John Loughery's fascinating, wide-ranging, richly informative, and insightful biography." - Daniel Walker Howe, author of Pulitzer-Prize-winning What Hath God Wrought
"Roman Catholic archbishop John Hughes was one of the most influential nineteenth-century New Yorkers. John Loughery's insightful biography of the controversial archbishop, who defended the famine Irish refugees in America against virulent nativism and built Saint Patrick's Cathedral, will help Americans better understand the important role he played in shaping Civil War America."
- Tyler Anbinder, author of City of Dreams: The 400-Year Epic History of Immigrant New York
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781501707742 |
| PRICE | $32.95 (USD) |
| PAGES | 424 |
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Featured Reviews
Mandy J, Reviewer
John Hughes left his native County Tyrone, Ireland and arrived in America virtually penniless in 1817. Through indomitable hard work and ambition he became Archbishop of the Archdiocese of New York in the 1840s and one of the most well-known Catholics of his time, and he remains a larger-than-life character to this day. He was enormously influential and tireless in his efforts for American Catholics who were often reviled and treated with suspicion. He established schools and seminaries and founded St Patrick's Cathedral – although he never lived to see its completion. He was, and remains, a controversial figure, but his efforts would one day make the election of a Catholic President perfectly acceptable. He lived through turbulent times and sometimes created some of that turbulence himself – hence Dagger being added to his name. The book is not just a biography but an in-depth account of the social and political milieu in which he lived and worked. As a biography it is comprehensive, meticulously researched and detailed, although it must be said also dry and academic at times. A worthwhile and interesting read.
