Book Review – December 16, 2009

This is a little bit strange for the types of books I usually list. Here goes:

When Dawn and I were in Ireland during my sabbatical in the summer of 2007 we visited the Guinness Beer plant in Dublin that was part of a city tour. It was a very interesting tour but there was a lot of history I didn’t know about the whole thing. That is until I came across a book The Search for God and Guinness by Stephen Mansfield. Apparently, there are a lot of other books written about Guinness beer and the Guinness family but this one was most interesting. I learned some things.

1. Beer has a strong history for centuries and during the 18^th century at least it was considered a healthy alternative for the drinking of gin that was common among the poor and caused many problems. The prohibition in the United States probably had the most to do with linking beer and to alcohol consumption and abuse. I’m not an expert at all of that so I’ll stop there but I was surprised to hear that persons such as Martin Luther and John Calvin enjoyed their beer.
2. Arthur Guinness, the patriarch of the Guinness family beer business was strongly influenced by John Wesley as Wesley preached in Dublin on several occasions. Although there is no immediate connection that Guinness heard Wesley preach it is almost certain because of the habits of Arthur Guinness. One of the elements of that influence had to do with concern for the poor. Arthur Guinness also was instrumental in bringing Sunday School to Ireland as it was developing in England. Sunday School was looked down upon by the Anglican Church because they considered it a breaking of the Sabbath but the proponents believed it was a necessary element in education the poor children who were often working long and hard hours throughout the week at that time in history.
3. The Guinness beer business has had a long history in taking care of its people – good wages and working conditions – as well as being proactive in health care for its employees and neighbors in that area of Dublin.
4. The Guinness family has produced many pastors and missionaries throughout the years. Hudson Taylor, famous missionary to China married a Guinness woman.

That’s enough about beer.

The other book I have enjoyed reading of late is Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson. It happened to be a free kindle book on Amazon. The book revolves around several divers connected by their commitment to diving shipwrecks on the East Coast. In particular it involves the discovery of a U-boat off of the coast of New York that had never been identified and the great amount of work to discover its identify and history. It was one of those books that were hard to put down. It also did a good job in describing the danger involved with such diving. It made me feel claustrophobic several times.

I’m reading a lot of other books right now but will comment on them as I finish them.