The history of Jewish conversos in Spain has been the subject of serious historical research and often wildly inaccurate fiction. However, the story of the role played by men of Jewish descent in the foundation and early years of the Jesuit Order is largely unknown. Maryks (history, Bronx Community College, CUNY) rectifies this with an absorbing study of the acceptance of conversos into the order by Ignatius Loyola and the influence these individuals had on the development of Jesuit education and philosophy. It is also the story of the growth of the "purity of blood" laws and how their proponents finally overcame resistance within the Jesuits to such an extent that no one with Jewish ancestry was admitted to the order until 1946. The microcosm of the Jesuit experience is the example for a macrocosm of racism that spread to the Spanish colonies in the Americas. Maryks has used a wealth of primary sources, including some newly discovered, to establish his argument. This is an important contribution to studies of Spanish colonialism, the legal validation of racism and the history of the Counter-Reformation. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)