No.809: A Mother Academia Update & New Civil War Era Books

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It’s been two and a half months, so time for a little Mother Academia update! (You can find the introduction post here.)

A TWO MONTH UPDATE

AMERICAN HISTORY

I’m ever so slowly making my way through Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story by Wilfred M. McClay, following rabbits trails as the mood strikes! I realized (a little too late) that I could have added Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee into the Jacksonian presidency period…maybe I’ll read it anyway? Once I got to the chapters about the North and South and the increasingly tense issue of slavery, I knew I wanted to take a significant pause. I started with Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (which was excellent) and then tried a fictional novel called The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier (good). Although the goal of this Mother Academia endeavor is to try to read books from my shelves, I couldn’t help myself and purchased a few more from this time period. See more about those below!

CATHOLIC STUDIES

I’m reading slowly in this topic, but learning a ton! I finished Bearing False Witness: Debunking Centuries of Anti-Catholic History by Rodney Stark, which was excellent, and am one chapter in to Bad Shepherds: The Dark Years in Which the Faithful Thrived While Bishops Did the Devil’s Work by Rod Bennett. It’s not grabbing me nearly as much as the first book and the writer’s tone is significantly different than the more academic Stark, but I’ll persevere. I’m also still plugging along with the Catechism of Saint Pius X. Just a few more sections to go!

LATIN LANGUAGE

I…am…struggling, ha! I have been going through Latin by the Natural Method, First Year by William G. Most, PhD (free online!) and it is just not clicking. I think it’s because they’re throwing declensions and cases at me right away and while I sorta get it, I also don’t retain it. It’s gotten so bad that I’ve purposely skipped “Latin Day” multiple weeks in a row, so I know something has to change. My middle school son is also taking Latin and I think I’m going to switch into his book, Getting Started with Latin by William E. Linney.

ECONOMICS

I completed the Economics 101 course (free from Hillsdale College) and learned a lot! Obviously, there were a lot of economics nuts and bolts (supply and demand curves, economic profit, macroeconomic theory, etc) but the course also provided the evidence that free markets will always perform better than planned economies. Really, really interesting. The book I read to go along with the course was A Capitalist Manifesto: Understanding The Market Economy And Defending Liberty by Gary Wolfram. Next up: taking a follow-up course from Hillsdale called Supply-Side Economics and American Prosperity.

OTHER NOTABLE SIDE PATHS

+ I finally read The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien along with an accompanying book called Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien’s “the Hobbit” by Corey Olsen. The latter definitely helped me as I read and explained pieces I might have overlooked. Fantasy is not my go-to genre, but I really enjoyed the experience!
+ I dabbled in something completely new and followed along with Adam at Close Reading Poetry’s explanation of Anne Bradstreet’s poem “Before the Birth of One of Her Children.” I printed out the poem for my commonplace book and added the notations as he went along. I’m not well read in poetry, but I think this is a Youtube channel I’ll be frequenting more in the coming months.
+ And because I can’t leave well enough alone, I started a Great Books 101 course and began the massive tome of The Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer. About 100 pages in so far!

DOWN THE CIVIL WAR ERA RABBIT TRAIL

My time for this Mother Academia endeavor will definitely be shortened in the next few months as farming ramps up, but I hope I can keep the habit going. I’m especially excited to dive into the new books I bought for the Civil War Era study and I’d love to know if you have any recommendations for this time period too! My new additions: