Since the founding of the first Catholic schools and colleges in the late 1700s, Catholic education has shaped and been shaped by its encounter with the broader American culture. This course explores the historical development of Catholic education in America while attending to the broader philosophical and cultural currents shaping American education. This course will examine the ways in which American Catholic schools drew on the deep Catholic intellectual and educational traditions as it engaged American culture while at the same time, motivated by a strong missionary impulse, they sought to serve immigrants, the poor, Native Americans and Black populations in the new nation.