Georgetown's second founder : Fr. Giovanni Grassi's "News on the present condition of the Republic of the United States of North America"

Observations on the new American republic by an early president of Georgetown University Father Giovanni Antonio Grassi was the ninth president of Georgetown University and pioneered its transition into a modern institution, earning him the moniker Georgetown's Second Founder. Originally published in Italian in 1818 and translated here into English for the first time, his News on the Present Condition of the Republic of the United States of North America records his rich observations of life in the young republic and the Catholic experience within it. When Grassi assumed his post as president in 1812, he found the university, known then as Georgetown College, to be in a "miserable state." He immediately set out to enlarge and improve the institution, increasing the number of non-Catholics in the school, adding to the library's holdings, and winning authority from Congress to confer degrees. Upon his return to Italy, Grassi published his News, which introduced Italians to the promise and contradictions of the American experiment in self-governance and offered perspectives on the social reality for Catholics in America. This book is a fascinating work for historians of Catholicism and of the Jesuits in particular. "This book presents the first English translation of News on the Present State of the Republic of America by Fr Giovanni Antonio Grassi, the ninth president of Georgetown. First published in Italian in 1818, News went through three editions and gave its Italian readership a view of the early American republic, especially of the situation of Catholics in the United States. Born in Italy in 1775, Giovanni Antonio Grassi entered the Society of Jesus in 1799, and arrived in Baltimore in October of 1810. In 1811 he was appointed president of Georgetown College. He wrote that he was 'in a melanchology situation, compelled to be a sorrowful specator to the miserable state of the college.' Nevertheless, his tenure was one of achievement: he steered the college through the war of 1812, open the school to non-Catholics, and expanded the library. In 1815 the US Congress awarded Georgetown the authority to grant degrees. In 1817 Grassi returned to Italy and published News the following year. The book is a fascinating series of impressions of the young United States, interesting both as an example of European views of the US, as well as a glimpse into the life of Catholics in the early republic. It appears here for the first time in English, with an afteword by the eminent Georgetown historian Robert Emmett Curran"-- Provided by publisher Observations on the new American republic by an early president of Georgetown University Father Giovanni Antonio Grassi was the ninth president of Georgetown University and pioneered its transition into a modern institution, earning him the moniker Georgetowns Second Founder. Originally published in Italian in 1818 and translated here into English for the first time, this book records his rich observations of life in the young republic and the Catholic experience within it. When Grassi assumed his post as president in 1811, he found the university, known then as Georgetown College, to be in a miserable state. He immediately set out to enlarge and improve the institution, opening the school to non-Catholics, adding to the librarys holdings, and winning authority from Congress to confer degrees. Upon his return to Italy, Grassi published News on the Present Condition of the Republic of the United States of North America, which introduced Italians to the great American experiment in self-governance and offered perspectives on the social reality for Catholics. A fascinating work for historians of Catholicism and of the Jesuits in particular, this book reveals the pivotal role Italian educators and priests played in the shaping of the new nations greatest minds. **Observations on the new American republic by an early president of Georgetown University** __News on the Present Condition of the Republic of the United States of North America__