Thy Honored Name: A History of the College of the Holy Cross, 1843-1994 by Anthony J. Kuzniewski, S.J. (review)

660BOOK REVIEWS Thy HonoredName:A History ofthe College ofthe Holy Cross, 1843-1994. By Anthony J. Kuzniewski, SJ. (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press. 1999. Pp. xxv, 516. $34.95.) Anthony Kuzniewski, SJ., professor of history in the College of the Holy Cross, can tell a good story. Others have written histories of Holy Cross, but none has matched his literary skill and historical acumen. This is genuine history , not a celebratory essay. The author's thoroughness and attention to detail persuade one that no relevant document illuminating the college's history has been overlooked. Moreover, using data-based analysis and quantification technique , all nineteenth-century Holy Cross students were profiled, plus every class in the twentieth century for years ending in zero and five. Over 11,000 profiles were collected. The search was both enlightening and disappointing; an abundance of information was collected, and despite considerable gaps in it, the results are both summarized in the text and used to construct graphs and charts. The story unfolds in three parts: the first, from 1843 to 1901, or from the founding of "a New England college" and the influence of Boston's bishop Benedict Fenwick, to an indelible, permanent stamp of Jesuit character. Along with a recounting of "the struggle for success" reminiscent of the early life of most Catholic colleges of the time, there are many interesting sidelights,like the chartering tempest, the Georgetown degrees for Holy Cross students until I860, the devastating fire that all but destroyed Fenwick Hall, and an association with the famous convert Orestes A. Brownson and his four sons. The second part, 1901 to I960, is filled with a variety of vexations. Money was in short supply and the school's needs were pressing; financial distress was a constant cloud on the horizon. But these years, too, were a time when Catholic colleges, and Holy Cross chief among them, began to reconstruct their curricula. It might be argued that Jesuit colleges shed their traditional classical curricula more slowly than others, but shed them they did. Charles W Eliot's direct influence on curricular change in American higher education might be somewhat inflated, and one should be slow to give him credit for priming the pump for electivism in Jesuit schools. Perceptive Jesuit educators could read the signs along the American academic trail as well as Eliot. In any case, it appears that his private correspondence and conversation with Holy CrossJesuits were a good deal more cordial and civil than his public stance and utterance about Catholic college academic standards. The third part, I960 to 1994, "this remarkable burst toward the future," features the skülful and stable leadership of presidents Raymond Swords andJohn Brooks (together their terms covered thirty-five years). Under their direction, foEowing the post-World War II college boom, Holy Cross came of age. Part of the right of passage involved coeducation, an early 1970's occurrence at Holy Cross that was met with a surprising equanimity. As a bastion ofJesuit tradition BOOK REVIEWS66 1 and standard, Holy Cross might have become a battleground over an admission policy poised to admit women. Instead, to maintain its high academic standards and meet its enrollment goals, talented young women were made welcome. A persistent complaint of past administrative practice in most Catholic colleges is the brevity of presidential terms. Most schools followed a rule for religious superiors that limited presidents (and in Jesuit houses, rectors) to two three-year terms. At Holy Cross, if Fathers Swords and Brooks are excluded, presidential terms averaged slightly fewer that four years, but Father Kuzniewski does not call this a fault. All presidents were young, usually under forty, some had administrative experience before taking office at Holy Cross, and only two served separate terms: Fathers Anthony Ciampi (three) andJoseph Dinand (two). The author is persuasive in arguing that an absence of local autonomy— with all grave decisions made at a provincial or higher level—was only a brake on, not an obstacle to, progress. Whether the author or the publisher should be credited, notes are where they belong, at the bottom of the page, where either for documentation or explanation , they are excellent. The...