Closing Chapters

Urban Change, Religious Reform, and the Decline of Youngstown's Catholic Elementary Schools, 1960-2006

By (author) Thomas G. Welsh

Publication date:

08 December 2011

Length of book:

340 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

Dimensions:

240x162mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780739165942

Closing Chapters attempts to explain the disintegration of urban parochial schools in Youngstown, Ohio, a onetime industrial center that lost all but one of its eighteen Catholic parochial elementary schools between 1960 and 2006. Through this examination of Youngstown, Welsh sheds light on a significant national phenomenon: the fragmentation of American Catholic identity.

Acknowledgments
Dedication
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Rise of a Parochial School System
Chapter 3: "The Immaculate": One School's Experience
Chapter 4: Urban Exodus: Depopulation and Urban Parish Schools
Chapter 5: Demographic Change and Urban Parish Schools
Chapter 6: Out of These Ashes: Vatican II and Catholic Identity
Chapter 7: A House Divided: Conclusions
Epilogue
Bibliography

The story of America's urban Catholic elementary schools in the latter stages of the 20th century is, to a considerable extent, one of decline and demise. Thomas G. Welsh has told the story of those schools in one of America's cities—Youngstown, Ohio—and he has done so with thoroughness and understanding. I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in understanding the complex social forces that enveloped those schools that led to their closure.