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Favorite history spine for early modern


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Dd will be entering 9th grade and I'm considering piecing together her history curriculum (early modern 1600 - 1850) along w/GB study. I've looked at the wtm and saw what SWB recommends (haven't looked at it in person, but hopefully will see it this weekend at Borders). But I'd love to know what other spines have been good reads/thorough/engaging... what about Spielvogel Human Odyssey or Western Civ or Western Heritage?? Don't know anything about these, but have heard them mentioned...

 

Any help would be great! :)

Sangita

dd(14),dd(12),dd(9),ds(6)

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We have used Spielvogel's Human Odyssey for 2 years (first 200 pages for ancient world history; last 400-450 pages for 20th century world history), and plan to use it for our Medieval-to-Enlightenment World History (about 400-450 pages) next year. We also created our own Great Books study which generally (with exceptions) matched the history.

 

If you were to use Human Odyssey over 4 years of history, you would end up reading 200 pages 1 year for ancients (5.5 pages/week), and about 300-350 pages in each of the next 3 years (8-9 pages/week), which is very manageable when done along with a Great Books study.

 

 

PROS

Every 4-6 pages within the chapter are short section quizzes; at the end of each chapter is a 2-page spread with a LOT of questions of a variety of types -- comprehension; discussion; research/writing prompts; multiple choice; etc. so you have options for reviewing and/or expanding the chapter material, discussing it, writing about it, etc. I understand there are also additional supplemental materials so you could expand the text even further.

 

There are illustrations or photos on just about every page, and there are frequent "sidebars" with either very short articles on related cultural/social aspects of the times, or excerpts from source documents or writings from authors of the times. The textbook covers pre-history (from an evolutionary perspective) to 1999 in over 1100 pages, so I would say it is thorough.

 

 

CONS

Human Odyssey is a high school textbook, written in standard textbook style. It is not written in an engaging or conversational style as was the Notgrass American History we just finished this year. It has just a very slight anti-religious perspective (a tone that very subtly implies that at best religion is a quaint idea that the majority of people followed because they lived in more simple, less educated times, and at worst is a component of social/political unrest exploited by people using its power for their own gain) -- I stress that I found that to be a very mild undertone. Both years we used Human Odyssey, we read aloud/discussed together and added in other books/resources from other perspectives to balance the viewpoint.

 

 

I selected Human Odyssey over Spielvogel's Western Civilizations because I wanted inclusion of history of non-western nations, which it does include throughout the book. I found mine about 5 years ago through Amazon's used books for about $12, including postage.

 

For next year, I had considered using SWB's new adult history book on Medieval times, but it is twice as long as we have time for (over 800 pages), and only covers about half the amount of the time period we're trying to cover. Alas... I would have enjoyed trying yet another resource for a history spine for the variety of viewpoints.

 

I have decided to go with Human Odyssey again next year because it is a "known quantity", and we can use as much or as little as we want, since it will only be able to count towards elective credit, and because we will be attempting a community college class and graduating a student at the end of next year. However, to mix it up a little, I AM going to add the Sister Wendy's book AND series of videos on art to give the history a more humanities twist. Still looking for what we might do for possible exposure to music thru the ages...

 

 

BEST of luck in finding what works best for your family! Warmly, Lori D.

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Lori,

Thanks so much for your help. I am hopeful I can find SWB's recommendations at Borders to leaf thru' along with Human Odyssey - its nice it had comp Q's. Curious, for any literature books or Great Books your dc read, did you discuss with them with your dc? What did you use for discussions?

 

Thanks!

Sangita

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We plan on using Speilvogel's Western Civilization, which like Human Odyssey, breaks each time period up into 200 - 300 page increments. We will have already studied world history to a large degree by the time high school rolls around, so we chose Western Civilization because we felt that it was important to "specialize" when it comes to history. We also think it'll be particularly helpful in studying for CLEP (placment exams that can earn a student up to nine hours of college credit and exempt him from taking elementary courses).

 

For literature study, have you considered soemthing like Invitation to the Classics: A Guide to Books You've Always Wanted to Read? You can preview the book on Amazon to get a feel for what it's like. There seem to be lots of comprehensive questions, essay suggestons, discussion points, etc.

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Lori -

One more thing, does Human Odyssey have answers to the questions in the back of the book or at TM?

Thanks!

 

No answers in the back of the textbook. I believe I remember someone on this board once mentioning something about a TM for Human Odyssey, but we don't have anything other than the textbook.

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For our Great Books study, we read aloud together, and discuss/analyze as we read. We use various lit. guides and resources to springboard discussion, as well as questions from The Well Educated Mind, and now finishing up our third year of doing Great Books studies, we quite often don't even need any guides, but see and comment and analyze a lot on our own as we see things. I also have an edge in that my background in college includes a lot of analyzing of literature and film. ;) Below are some past threads in which a number of people share how they "do" a Great Books study. BEST of luck -- and ENJOY your Great Books journey together! Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

 

How do I choose Great Books when I haven't read most of them?

 

Great Books study -- what resources are you using?

 

Secular Great Books guides?

 

Those of you who did WTM-style Great Books

 

Please share how you "do history" ala WTM Great Books

 

I don't think we are cut out for the Great Books

 

Great Books question (just getting started; how to read the Great Books with your child)

Edited by Lori D.
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We've also been using "Human Odyssey" as our spine for history. I agree the writing is uninspiring, so we spend a lot of time reading other stuff alongside. And of course there is little coverage of American history except as mentioned in passing. I've decided to either stick with HO or perhaps switch to Western Civ, by Spielvogel, in the hopes that it is bit more interesting and detailed. After all, SWB recommended Western Civ,not HO. Also, we're using the Teaching Company's History of the US, Tindall's America and Lies My Teacher Told Me (Loewen) among others, as supplements. I hadn't thought about losing all the Asian crowd, though, Lori D., so good point! We've also been reading Murphey's History of Asia (SWB rec) which is quite good, so I guess I'll have to figure that in, too, if I switch. Argh, it's complicated.

 

BTW, we've found this really interesting series called "Taking Sides" which presents two sides of an argument with an essay for each. There's a whole series of them on different topics, and they have added an interesting dimension to our studies.

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I've also decided to use Spielvogel's Human Odyssey for early modern world history for next year. I purchased the TE as well--1999 ed. ISBN for TE is 0-538-43032-X. I had to pay more for TE than student ed, but plan to use it again the following year for modern world history so think it will be worth it.

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We've also been using "Human Odyssey" as our spine for history. I agree the writing is uninspiring, so we spend a lot of time reading other stuff alongside. And of course there is little coverage of American history except as mentioned in passing. I've decided to either stick with HO or perhaps switch to Western Civ, by Spielvogel, in the hopes that it is bit more interesting and detailed. After all, SWB recommended Western Civ,not HO. Also, we're using the Teaching Company's History of the US, Tindall's America and Lies My Teacher Told Me (Loewen) among others, as supplements. I hadn't thought about losing all the Asian crowd, though, Lori D., so good point! We've also been reading Murphey's History of Asia (SWB rec) which is quite good, so I guess I'll have to figure that in, too, if I switch. Argh, it's complicated.

 

BTW, we've found this really interesting series called "Taking Sides" which presents two sides of an argument with an essay for each. There's a whole series of them on different topics, and they have added an interesting dimension to our studies.

 

So you like SWB early mod history texts she recommends (Tindall and Murphey's bks? Are they engaging to read? I think my kids have been spoiled with SOTW! Still trying to decide on a spine. So, would you pick Western Civ or Human Odysssey?

 

Thanks!

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