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Gag me with this review of Spielvogel:


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I was looking at finding a textbook for my dd. She wants a "just the facts ma'am" approach next year. Anyways, I googled "review Spielvogel Human Odyssey" and got a hit for the Fordham Institute. They apparently performed reviews for both American and World High School history texts. I have no idea what the Fordham Institute is nor the background of the reviewers. However, it appears to be an actual organization.

 

I was pretty intrigued to read that the Human Odyssey scored 2nd to last in its field. So I scrolled down to read this as one of its many perceived weaknesses (I added in the bold):

 

"Its greatest flaw is the earnestly dull, depersonalized tone in which it is written. Rarely do individuals, ideas or anything else come across as exciting. I would much rather have students read biased but engaging and entertaining works – HG Wells, for example – than doom them to slog through this kind of very long, very antiseptic tone."

:confused::confused::confused::confused::confused::confused::confused::

 

Okay! I'm not sure what HG Wells work the reviewer is talking about. But, my reaction to this is not fit to print on this forum.

 

Anyways, I thought it might make a good topic for a discussion plus I was interested in what people who have used HO would think of this quote (especially the part about it being dull).

 

Holly

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We use Human Odyssey.

 

1st child started HO part way through the book. She chose to go back and read the 1st 1/3 of the book "for fun" because she loved the way it was written.

 

2nd child compares other history books to the writing style of HO--it is his standard for being a high school textbook that is interestingly written.

 

3rd child--I gave him an option of continuing HO (his in 8th) or moving on to something else the 2nd semester. He chose HO.

 

Must not be too boring. Ethier that or my kids have never done any interesting study of history (not so!).

 

We study history over and over again. I do not go for a textbook that has every fact perfectly in place (can't be done, anyway), but for a book the broadens the older child's view of history. I think Spielvogel does this nicely--whether the critics like him or not.

 

Anyway...this is mild criticism compared to the American history texts we use. LOL!

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Human Odyssey has worked well for us. It's a very broad overview of world history, to be sure, but in reality each culture, each segment of time keeps many PhD's in history quite busy with their studies. I didn't read his whole review, but his complaints seemed inane.

 

I agree with Jean: I've seen far worse in American history textbooks that are used extensively in p.s. settings. And, like Jean stated, history needs to be studied repeatedly at our house (hence, why we cycle through history year by year).

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I am shocked that a "historian" would rather present a biased view of history and have students enjoy the subject matter. Isn't that kind of what historical fiction is? (And I'm sure there are historical fiction writers who would probably take issue with my definition.) Why take those rules and apply them to a textbook? When you read a piece of historical fiction you know to take things with a grain of salt. But, isn't a textbook supposed to be as close to what really happened as possible?

 

I think it is a sick twisted way of looking at life. Let's dramatize things so that people pay attention. And I know it happens all the time. But in a history textbook? Pathetic.

Holly

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political correctness or bias or whatever you want to call it rules the day.

 

If I were a historian delving into a particular time period, I would think trying to maintain freedom from bias would be important. I think some bias is unavoidable, just as no particular public school or any other school, for that matter, is free of "bias" or some type of religious or political persuasion.

 

I'm still glad we have both Spielvogel texts: World History and Western Civilization.

 

Agreeing here, Holly! :iagree:

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when I was choosing history texts for ds. I take almost all reviews of history texts with a grain of salt. Almost all texts are biased in some way and each person also has their biases.

 

HO was our choice and ds loved it. Ds2 loves it too. If it works and you are ok with it, use it.

 

Same can be said for the reviews of Alg. 1 on the mathmatically correct site.

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I was looking at finding a textbook for my dd. She wants a "just the facts ma'am" approach next year. Anyways, I googled "review Spielvogel Human Odyssey" and got a hit for the Fordham Institute. They apparently performed reviews for both American and World High School history texts. I have no idea what the Fordham Institute is nor the background of the reviewers. However, it appears to be an actual organization.

 

I was pretty intrigued to read that the Human Odyssey scored 2nd to last in its field. So I scrolled down to read this as one of its many perceived weaknesses (I added in the bold):

 

"Its greatest flaw is the earnestly dull, depersonalized tone in which it is written. Rarely do individuals, ideas or anything else come across as exciting. I would much rather have students read biased but engaging and entertaining works – HG Wells, for example – than doom them to slog through this kind of very long, very antiseptic tone."

:confused::confused::confused::confused::confused::confused::confused::

 

Okay! I'm not sure what HG Wells work the reviewer is talking about. But, my reaction to this is not fit to print on this forum.

 

Anyways, I thought it might make a good topic for a discussion plus I was interested in what people who have used HO would think of this quote (especially the part about it being dull).

 

Holly

 

Not dull at all. The only "dull" part in my copy is the TAKS (Texas something or other - the "test" that teachers teach to - blech) questions - talk about taking the soul out of learning......

 

But Spielvogel is a great accompaniment to any great books study. We don't read every page here - mainly what applies to the time period of the book we're currently reading.

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