ABSTRACT
Orestes Brownson, Catholic educator and publicist, became the leading Catholic intellectual of nineteenth-century America despite his lack of formal schooling. This chapter examines Brownson’s definition of education and his early views on schooling in order to properly understand his later, controversial views as a Catholic. Schooling was only one part of education, for in addition to schools and colleges, Brownson viewed the family, Church, press, literature, adult self-help and mutual benefit societies, as well as the increasingly popular lecture programs as viable educational agencies. The notion that Brownson opposed Catholic “education” is totally erroneous, although he did at times oppose and criticize deficient Catholic schools. It is equally false to accuse Brownson of being a friend to the common school at the expense of the parochial school, for even before he had become a Catholic, Brownson had levelled severe criticism at the newly emerging common schools of Massachusetts under the direction of Horace Mann.
