Tracing the development of progressive Catholic approaches to political and economic modernization, this volume disputes standard interpretations of the Catholic response to democracy and modernity in the English-speaking world - particularly the conventional view that the Church was the servant of right-wing reactionaries and authoritarian, patriarchal structures.

In this sweeping volume, Corrin discusses the influences of Cecil and G. K. Chesterton, H. A. Reinhold, Hilaire Belloc, and many others on the development of Catholic social, economic, and political thought, with a special focus on Belloc and Reinhold as representatives of reactionary and progressive positions, respectively. He also provides an in-depth analysis of Catholic Distributists' responses to the labor unrest in Britain prior to World War I and later, in the 1930s, to the tragedy of the Spanish Civil War and the forces of fascism and communism.