Book 9 - God's Harvard by Hanna Rosin

I finished God's Harvard last night (Feb 9th) and keep thinking about it. Hanna Rosin's book takes the reader inside Patrick Henry College, a Christian college "where ambitious young evangelicals are groomed into tomorrow's conservative elite." Without commenting on my personal opinion of Christianity, this book is fascinating. Rosin, born in Israel and Jewish, spends 2 years with the students and faculty of Patrick Henry, chronicling all aspects of their lives - academic, romantic, and otherwise. She chooses a handful of students and teachers to really focus on but it seems that the book gives you an accurate picture of the entire campus.

Patrick Henry is a very new college, constructed and created within the last 10 years. The school was built around the premise that evangelical Christians (home schooled kids, missionary kids, etc.) can have a future in traditional politics, that the best way to further the Christian agenda is to have members of their community on the ground, in the trenches as it were. Patrick Henry focuses on giving these Christian kids a strong fundamental education (with focus on government, legislature, etc.) that is in line with their Christian beliefs and doesn't compromise their moral strength. It's a fascinating goal.

Rosin does a beautiful job of portraying the people beneath the mission. She masters the balance between identification with her subjects and questioning of their words/actions.

Full disclosure - Hanna Rosin is one of my favorite Slate/DoubleX columnists. I think she's a beautiful writer and an incredibly smart woman. That said, I was blown away by this book. I found myself drawn into it with the same interest I would a plot thick novel. I did follow-up research, looking into many of her sources and visiting the Patrick Henry website.

Regardless of your political leanings or religious identification, this is a fascinating read that is relevant to the future of American politics and to the integration of fundamentalist views. The kids at Patrick Henry are the future of America - these are the brightest and most ambitious of the next generation, with perfect SAT scores, scads of extracurriculars (despite being home schooled), and the evangelical sense of purpose and fate.

In writing this review, I did a lot of digging around online for things that related to God's Harvard and to Patrick Henry. Jona Frank has put together an amazing collection of photos from his time on campus (with Hanna Rosin) - you can see a few of them over at Newsweek and the blog over at ChristianColleges.com gives an interesting breakdown of Patrick Henry. With such a tricky subject at the heart of God's Harvard, I'm sure you all can imagine the wide swath of possible opionions about the book and Hanna Rosin. Some, like myself, found the book interesting and captivating while others wonder 'Why is Hanna Rosin Mad at God?'

The book has also been widely reviewed by more news-type sources. The New York Times reviewed the work in 'Political Fundamentals'; NPR did the same in 'Hanna Rosin Goes Inside God's Harvard'. The Washington Post and the California Literary Review also ran interviews with Rosin.