Adapted to the Lake: Letters by the Brother Founders of Notre Dame, 1841-1849 Edited and translated by George Klawitter (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 463 interest those who seek to understand Indian-white relations in the nineteenth century. And despite its shortcomings, this is die best available analysis of De Smet's public career. The specialist and general reader alike will find the study useful and informative. David M. Brumbach Seattle, Washington Adapted to the Lake: Letters by the Brother Founders ofNotre Dame, 1841— 1849- Edited and translated by George Klawitter. [American University Studies, Series DC, Vol. 141.] (New York: Peter Lang. 1993. Pp. xxx, 382.»67.95.) The diaries, letters, and other primary sources in the archives of both men's and women's religious congregations are infrequently used respositories, even through they contain valuable material. Adapted to the Lake makes accessible 200 archival letters written from 1841 to 1849 by twenty Brother-founders of the Congregation of the Holy Cross in the United States. When they first came to America in 1841, the correspondents were young men; the oldest Brother was forty-four, while the youngest was a mere fifteen. The letters, most being translated from French, primarily were written either to Father Edward Sorin, the superior at Notre Dame, Indiana, or to Father Basil Moreau, the founder-director of the Congregation of Holy Cross at Le Mans, France. Arranged chronologically, they can also be read by using a listng of letters by author. A good introduction, a chronological table, a location of early foundations , and an historical index of names mentioned in the letters are also included to aid the reader. That the frontier shaped American culture goes without saying, but how the frontier influenced American Catholicism is rarely discussed (recent articles by Brother Thomas Spalding, C.F.X., and last fall's issue of U.S. Catholic Historian are exceptions). These letters of young Holy Cross Brothers reveal the challenges of coping with frontier conditions. Travel was difficult and sometimes dangerous. Money was scarce (the Brothers often could not afford postage). Communication was slow (it took three months to get an answer from Moreau in France). Sickness was omnipresent. The number and quality of personnel available to teach in their schools was inadequate. Many struggles were relational: mistrust and misunderstanding between local bishops and pastors and the Brothers; bitterness toward their superior, Sorin; anxiety over permissions delayed by procrastination; constant financial preoccupations . These Frenchmen's letters from the American frontier offer us fresh perspectives . Poverty for them was not an ideal to be discussed, but a daily reality to be lived, since the Brothers often lacked food, warmth, adequate clothing, or classroom equipment. What motivated them was neither success nor in- 464 BOOK REVIEWS dividual accomplishment, but a deeply ingrained spirituality based on the tangible presence of God through Providence, the will of their superiors, and their experience of the Paschal Mystery. The state of their spiritual lives was a frequent topic ofdiscussion. These letter-writers are remarkably direct, frank, and honest in their complaints and in their recognition of their personal limitations. Like soldiers on the front, they were men who perpetually asked for permissions or awaited orders. Like soldiers, they saw themselves as part of a larger communal enterprise which demanded their self-sacrifice. Like soldiers, they often had an unflattering view of their leadership. The Brothers see a less perfect Sorin, unlike the unerring and righteous one presented in the recently published Chronicles ofNotre Dame du Lac. Unlike the latter work by Sorin, these letters by the Brothers reflect the viewpoint of foot soldiers, not generals, a perspective which makes this volume valuable. Michael J. McNaixy St. Charles Borromeo Seminary—Overbrook Wynnewood, Pennsylvania Voices from the Catholic Worker. Compiled and edited by Rosalie Riegle Troester. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 1993· Pp. xxii, 597. S49.95 clothbound; «22.95 paperback.) Dorothy Day's Catholic Worker movement, the quintessential expression of North American Catholic renewal and social radicalism in the twentieth century, has again inspired a massive tome. Rosalie Riegle Troester's Voices from the Catholic Worker, an oral history in the Studs Terkel tradition, has taken a modified "bottom-up" approach to Catholic radicalism, having focused on Catholic Worker volunteers over its founder and longtime leader. Drawn from more than two hundred interviews with Catholic Workers...