This narrative interrogates the notion of the fifties as an era of normalcy. Ellwood explores the Catholic-Protestant tensions, the conflict between theology and popular faith, and the underground forms of religiosity, and argues that the decade was actually full of spiritual strife.

If you still hold the notion that the fifties were the 'good old days, ' blessed with incomparable social affluence and widespread family unity, all buttressed by a strong, unconflicted spirituality, then look again. In this compelling narrative of religion in a decade still embraced by an indefatigable nostalgia, Robert Ellwood interrogates the notion of the fifties as an era of normalcy, and it proves it to be full of spiritual strife.