Steven M. Avella

In the Richness of the Earth is a comprehensive history of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee. It covers the earliest time of Milwaukee being a settlement to the eve of Vatican II. I don’t remember why I bought this book, but I believe that the author or someone plugged it when I was still going to church really frequently. While I am not really a practicing Catholic at this time, I still go to church occasionally.

The historical aspect of the book is really excellent and well researched. It is filled with tons of period photographs and maps and so on. As faith has a role in the history of the area where I grew up, it really does a good job of showing how the Roman Catholic Church led the development of communities and other such things.

There are some things I don’t like about the book. The main problem I have with the book is its physical dimensions. It doesn’t exactly fit in with the rest of my books and it makes it somewhat annoying. Anyway, other than that, this book is pretty good for the aforementioned reasons.… (more)