The Spirit of Notre Dame: Legends, Traditions, and Inspiration from One of America#s Most Beloved Universities
The "spirit" in the book's title refers less to the gridiron heart for which Notre Dame is famous than to the religious and moral foundations of the venerable institution. The Langfords, an alumni family with ties to the university dating from 1842, compile a wide range of material, drawn from historical documents as well as selections written specifically for this volume, and organize their material broadly according to the virtues of Notre Dame: faith, love, hope, community and humor. Interspersed with these thematic sections, the Langfords also tell the story of Notre Dame's founder, Father Edward Sorin, and one of its most influential twentieth-century presidents, Father Theodore M. Hesburgh. Generally well-written and nicely organized, this unabashedly glowing review doesn't get much beyond a one-dimensional panegyric to the school and is closer to campus promotional literature than an in-depth study. ("Quite simply, we love Notre Dame," declare the Langfords in their preface.) Despite this, the book will certainly be of interest to those who attended Notre Dame or who have a family member who did, and the close ties between the university and the Catholic Church may make the work interesting for Catholics in general. But, overall, the book lacks the kind of historical-critical appraisal of the university and its place in the larger context of American society (or world Catholicism) that would interest readers with no ties to the school.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.