Customer Reviews

Christ and the Americas

5 star:		(5)
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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Well worth its price, this book covers the history of the Catholic Church in America in great detail. It combines interesting stories with the basic facts. With a good index, I need no other book to study American Church History.

Great Catholic high school history. Gives the role of the Catholic Church in American history. Starts with the earliest explorers and concludes with the 1990's. Covers American history in a fast-paced, thorough, interesting manner. Scores of amazing insights. Makes history really come alive. Great for students; stimulating and informative reading for adults also. U.S. and Central and South American history beautifully woven together. Each era gets its own in-depth coverage. Gives a great sense of American history.

This is yet another wonderful surprise from the talented pen of Ann Carroll. The book is an inclusive and well written account of the influence of our Lord and Savior on American history. Although I am priviliged to be degreed in history, it was in this excellent and important book that I really came to understand the important notion of subsidiarity. This concept holds as follows:

One of the key principles of Catholic social thought is known as the principle of subsidiarity. This tenet argues that nothing should be done by a larger and more complex organization which can be done as well by a smaller and simpler organization. In other words, any activity which can be performed by a more decentralized entity should be. This principle is a bulwark of limited government and personal freedom. It conflicts with the passion for centralization and bureaucracy characteristic of the Welfare State.

Would that our legislative, executive, and judicial servants understood this important concept! Perhaps one day they will. Bravo once again to Mrs. Carroll!

This is a well written and researched text. It gives a good balance to all the anti-Catholic texts that are in print. I found it easy to read. My student enjoyed the book and increased her love of history. We used the study guide as well.

This book is both valuable and ridiculous. The maps are clear and abundant, and the text is very readable and interesting, but the viewpoint is astonishingly parochial (in the sense of "narrow-minded").

I truly enjoyed reading the chapters about "Catholics in the New Nation" and "No Irish Need Apply" because this information is hard to find, but the author's rants against liberalism (such as on page 106, where it really sounds like she'd rather have a monarchy than a democracy) and her uncritical enthusiasm for the actions of every Catholic who ever set foot on the continent before 1800 sometimes verge on the absurd. She says of one explorer that he made mistakes in spite of being Catholic!

She spends several chapters on the exploration and conquest of South America, Mexico, and Canada, but never describes the Native cultures of North America. She makes lots of unsupported assertions and never cites the sources of her information.

"Charles Carroll of Carrollton" and "Thomas Jefferson of Monticello" each get a titled section of Chapter 7, and Bishop John Carroll (the first US bishop and the founder of Georgetown University) gets half of a chapter, leading me to muse that a alternate title for the book might be "Members of My Family and Other Catholics in America."

Much as I want to have a Catholic perspective on our history studies, I cannot use this as the main text in my Catholic homeschool because of the narrow vision of the author, and her reliance on assertions without providing support. I can't say that I was surprised the author's vision, because it is a TAN book, but I was hoping for something better.

If you are a fan of TAN books in general, and only want your students to consider one point of view, then you will like this book. However, it certainly does not provide a model for the kind of scholarship I want my students to practice.

Finally, a history book written from a Catholic perspective. Mrs Carroll's books are interesting, informative and give the reader a view of history they will not find in most history books. I enjoyed this book very much.

If your objective is to teach about the Catholic Church in America, this book might be of some value. But as an American History textbook it is a joke. Significant events -- such as the 19th amendment and the women's suffrage movement -- are entirely ignored. And if you think it is possible to write about the Second World War and never once mention the words "Jew" or "concentration camp," then this is the book for you. But there IS an entire chapter on "no Irish need apply." You'll also have to deal with a prose style that is ponderous and often difficult to understand, and a polemical presentation that is determined not to let the reader make up his own mind about anything.

It's worth noting that the author has no credentials whatsoever to write a history text, but since that's not what this book is, apparently that doesn't matter to Anne Carroll.