History

The Guide to Famous Men of Greece is an optional supplement for the book. It includes, for each lesson, a vocabulary list and several discussion questions designed to bring out the key points of each life through a Christian (biblical) perspective. The discussion questions are excellent narration starters and really do help bring out the theme that "individual people and their actions have a significant effect on history". There are some ideas for simple hands-on projects (the first lesson involves making a salt relief map of the country in question, to get an idea of how geographical circumstances affect history). There are also suggestions for supplementary reading. I must say their book choices are quite wonderful and that all the books we acquired on Greenleaf's recommendation for ancient history have been treasures. There is also a timeline at the back which is helpful in unifying the various biographies.

Regarding the scientific life of Gregor Mendel, there’s not much to tell. He grew up desperately poor and sought the priesthood to escape the robata system of farming. After carrying out his now famous experiments, the significance of which not even the best scientific minds of the day could grasp, he became abbot of the St. Thomas friary, a position whose demands prevented further scientific endeavors.

Mawer tells Mendel’s story and gives the details, but only enough to give us a sense of Mendel the scientist. A biologist himself, Mawer elaborates about the experiments but he does not stop there. He takes the reader forward in time to when Mendel’s work is rediscovered, and traces the development of Genetics as a field of study to the present day. The book is as much a scientific account as it is biographical.

Many of the details from Mendel’s life Mawer takes from other biographers whose work focus exclusively and more extensively on his life, particularly Iltis. (Mawer does correct Iltis and just about everyone else by describing Mendel as a friar and not as a monk, which makes a whole lot more sense.) In this sense, the book is as much about Mendel’s discovery as it is about his life.

Mendel lived during the rise of Materialism throughout an increasingly unstable Europe not long after the French Revolution. By Mawer’s account, Mendel became a priest to escape poverty, ending up in a very pleasant and comfortable life living and teaching at St. Thomas Abbey in the present day Czech Republic. He portrays the abbey as very liberal politically and speaks little of any spirituality. We see very little of this side of Mendel in this book, and Mawer says there is little of it to be found in what is extant of his writings. (His personal papers were customarily burned by the brothers just after his burial.)

Something I found of particular interest is the story of the forty offprints of his manuscript "Experiments in Plant Hybridization" that Mendel sent out. Of these forty only seven have been recovered, the other thirty-three likely lost forever. As was typical, they were uncut when they were sent and so had to be cut open in order to read them; two of the seven copies found were uncut.

The oversized hardcover edition is very nice because of the large reproductions of naturalist drawings and the antique photographs of people, places, and scientific equipment. It makes an excellent supplement for high school students studying genetics because of the amount and level of the scientific and historical detail in it. Overall, "Gregor Mendel: Planting the Seeds of Genetics" is a fulfillment of Mendel’s words regarding his experiments shortly before his death, “My time will come.”

The future looks dim for the Continental army. With scare firewood, little needed supplies of food, blankets and muskets, meager shelter, and disorganized soldiers deserting, the prospects of winning the war, let alone recapturing Boston look doubtful.

To compound the problem, their munitions supply is dwindling fast and they have no heavy artillery to defend themselves or create an offensive attack.

Aboard the HMS Somerset General Howe, the commander of the British army, is anxiously awaiting reinforcements.

But Col. Henry Knox is not one to sit idle and wait. He comes up with a clever plan to bring 183 cannons from Fort Ticonderoga back to Boston. This is no small task and even though everyone else believes it will end in failure Gen. Washington gives his approval of the daring plan.

Fighting against insurmountable odds, sheer cliffs, blinding snowstorms, melting rivers, and more, Col. Knox, along with his younger brother and a brave band of men, seek to defy all odds and using ingenuity, cooperation and perseverance hope to bring the cannons to Boston before the British reinforcements arrive.

Will they make it? Even more important, will they make it before the British crush the meager Continental army?

Not just another historical fiction book about the American Revolution. This book is based on real people and actual events. Following the events with great accuracy, Guns for General Washington offers a gripping account of the incredible dangers they must fact and their ingenuity in overcoming them. This story is a testament to the many virtues of the human spirit.

I usually make it a point not to read an introduction to a book; I never want to be prejudiced by someone else’s take on a story. But since this would be the fourth time I would read Helena by Evelyn Waugh, I decided to read the introduction by George Weigel in Loyola Press’ reprint of this classic. And I am so glad I did.

I had always marveled that Waugh said he considered this to be the favorite of his novels when it was never as critically acclaimed as some of his others, and was, until this reprint, pretty much on the edge of obscurity. Weigel explores Waugh’s rationale, revealing some of what Waugh was thinking when he created the character of Helena.

What the reader must know is that this is not a work of accurate historical fiction, but a statement of Waugh’s idea of personal sanctity. Addressing the objection that Helena isn’t portrayed as a “saint,” Weigel reports that Waugh said:

I liked Helena’s sanctity because it is in contrast to all that moderns think of as sanctity. She wasn’t thrown to the lions, she wasn’t a contemplative, she didn’t look like an El Greco. She just discovered what it was God had chosen for her to do and did it. And she snubbed Aldous Huxley with his perennial fog, by going straight to the essential physical historical fact of the redemption.

I think appreciating this thought is the key to appreciating the whole novel, and what makes it a great Catholic story. It is historical fiction that is not meant to show the historical time period (though it does do that admirably), so much as to show one woman’s pilgrimage toward sanctity.

Waugh makes Helena the daughter King Coel (of “Ole King Cole” fame) and puts Constantius in Britain before he was historically there. She leaves her beloved home to marry Constantius and follow him into the political intrigues of the struggling empire. She is finally put aside so that Constantius may make a political marriage, and in those years of solitude she doesn’t simper and feel sorry for herself; she becomes a strong, successful woman who ultimately finds the Christian faith—a truth among the strange philosophies of the time. Once Constantine is Emperor and she is restored to the pages of history, she sets out to find the True Cross. No one knows how she finally found it, but Waugh has her meet in a dream the “Wandering Jew,” one who is doomed to walk the earth because he didn’t help Jesus on the road to Calvary.

One interesting thing is that Waugh does not portray Constantine in a good light at all. Although, Constantine did convert on his deathbed, Waugh has his character plan it that way; I suppose to make some sense of his not converting sooner. He seems a kind of contrasting archetype to the sincere seeking soul of Helena. Constantine says:

You start again, quite new, quite innocent, like a newborn child. But next minute you can fall into sin again and be dammed to all eternity. That’s good doctrine, isn’t it? Well, then what does the wise man do—the man in a position like mine where it’s impossible not to commit a few sins every now and then? He waits. He puts it off until the very last moment. He lets the sins pile up blacker and heavier. It doesn’t matter. They’ll be washed away in baptism, the whole lot of them and all he has to do is to stay innocent, just for a very short time, just to hold the devil at bay for a week or two, perhaps a few hours only.

Waugh’s writing is impeccably timed. The ache of Helena’s loneliness, even when she is with Constantius, is palpable. There is one place where Helena is trying to stop from laughing at something, and I found myself laughing out loud for her. Although this book is recommended on many high school reading lists, there is one scene in the first chapter that a parent might preread to determine its appropriateness for his/her children. At a banquet, Helena is daydreaming about being a horse, and it comes to a very sensual conclusion, in my opinion. It is important to the story, though, because as she comes out of her reverie, Constantius is staring at her and she knows that she belongs with him.

In addition to Weigel’s introduction, another great feature of this Loyola Press edition is a set of discussion questions provided at the back of the book. They are very thought provoking—not simple comprehension questions, but those that will provide opportunity for serious discussion.