Land of Our Lady Book 1: Founders of Freedom

Neumann Press has reprinted the 1952 Catholic grade school world history textbook Founders of Freedom by Sister Mary Benedict Joseph, and it was good that they reprinted this superb textbook. It is a very clear, quick course in Western Civilization from ancient Greece and Rome up to the time of the Renaissance and it is aimed at fourth graders. This book is a delight to read. Not only does it give a quick summary of the important events of Western Civilization, it also imparts important moral lessons, such as these: • When you pray to God, be sure to thank God that you have been brought up as a Catholic. • We cannot cherish something which we do not understand. To cherish freedom, we must know what freedom is. To some freedom is synonymous with caprice; to others, it connotes a sense of irresponsibility. In either usage, the concept of freedom is a negative one; freedom is judged to be an end in itself, apart from orientation to any purpose or goal, divorced from any consideration of the end of human existence. In such a framework of thought, the free man has no more dignity than a tumbleweed being blown by the wind across a prairie. The Christian concept of freedom is release from forces which would impede his progress towards his true purpose and his ultimate end, which is to know, love and serve God. • When God made the world, He put everything in order. When Adam sinned, he destroyed the order that God had made. He lost many gifts also. Sin always brings unhappiness. • Saint Augustine wrote the book “City of God.” It is really Austine’s masterpiece. It tells how happiness is found in love of God instead of in love of self. • Faithfulness and obedience to God is the pathway to freedom and true happiness. • The present volume seeks to sketch in broad outline the story of freedom’s birth in the creative mind of God, the original transmission of this gift to man, its impairment through the human tragedy of sin, and the halting steps taken in the long centuries of Pre-Christian History to restore it once again. With the coming of Christ, a new era in human freedom dawned. Restored to the dignity of sons of God, men awoke to that freedom with which God had made them free. The passing centuries saw that freedom grow and expand in the climate of Christian civilization, so that today we are heirs of a legacy of freedom which ripened in the Western world. Not only are we the heirs, we are also the custodians of freedom; freedom is a victory which must be won and re-won in every century, in the kingdom of each man’s soul. This excellent textbook points out that Western Civilization introduced freedom, democracy and Christianity to the world, all of which are outstanding contributions which have made the world a better place.

Someone gave these to us in our church parking lot before we ever decided to homeschool! They are so easy to understand and interesting. When we started reading out of these books my son said school started getting fun!

Love these old books where the information is interesting enough to hold the attention of different ages. Tan academy does a great job st pairing literature to match the time period for a "bigger picture" of the time period.