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Which Spielvogel for World History?


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I think I'm gonna try to cover it in 1 - 1 1/2 years and want a spine book to follow. Would Spielvogel work? Is Spielvogel secular without being blatantly anti-Christian? Are true events covered, even some that regard religious events, or would I need to cover those separately?

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I have Human Odyssey and Western Civ. Not sure which one you are referring to, but either would work. WC is more 'adult' in some of the readings, a bit too descriptive for us, so we are going with HO. Spielvogel does discuss biblical events, but I hear that he has a mild resentment towards religion in general, not exactly anti-Christian that I could detect. I think with a little discussion, it will work fine for what you want.

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I think I'm gonna try to cover it in 1 - 1 1/2 years and want a spine book to follow. Would Spielvogel work?

 

 

We have, and have used, Spielvogel's Human Odyssey (HO). It is 1125 pages, so to finish it in 1-1/5 years, you'd need to cover almost 21 pages per week; or to finish in 1 year, you'd need to cover 31 pages per week (!!) Either way, that is a spritely pace. You can get through 4-6 pages in an hour (which includes doing the in-the-chapter quiz questions). To do HO in 1-1/2 years, you'd be doing an hour of HO per day, 4 days/week.

 

In comparison, we've been using HO spread out over 3-4 years:

- 8th/9th gr. boys = ancient world history = 200 pages (5.5 pages/week); definitely allowed us to include other resources for history each week, read historical fiction, do research papers, etc.

- 9th/10 gr. boys = 20th century world = approx. 400 pages (11 pages/week); still allowed for some other resources and research papers

 

 

Is Spielvogel secular without being blatantly anti-Christian? Are true events covered, even some that regard religious events, or would I need to cover those separately?

 

 

Spielvogel is secular; it is not blatantly anti-Christian, but there is a slight tone of that toward ANY religion (mostly that modern, unconscious idea that: "religion as a source of oppression", or, "religion was only followed by those who are more "sheep-like" and less enlightened, but we in modern times know better"). The Catholic church stands for all of Christianity throughout HO, and only in reference to the Catholic church as a political power or the Inquisition; no real mention of Church history, development of other denominations and why, and no mention of the helps by the Church with society.

 

In the last portion of HO (20th century), there also seems to be a favorable slant (or downplaying of the horrors) toward Hitler's atrocities, Stalin, and socialism in general.

 

 

All history books have some sort of bias, so it is always good to use more than one text when covering history. If you are wanting a World History that includes Church events, or has a more favorable bias toward the Church, you might look at Ray Notgrass' World History. It is also designed to cover all of world history in one year, plus it includes a book of primary source documents and writings from authors of the various time periods.

 

 

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

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Guest Cheryl in SoCal

Please correct me if I'm mistaken but isn't Human Odyssey a high school text? Western Civ is a college text. Spielvogel does have a college level world history text that is co-authored with Duiker call "World History." I have both World History and Western Civ. World History is basically his Western Civ text reduced to make it fewer pages so that the chapters written by Duiker could be added. I own both because I prefer the expanded text of Western Civ when we're studying something that's in it and use World History for things not found in Western Civ. I would have liked to have found a text written by Duiker that covered everything that's added to make it World History but I couldn't so I use both texts.

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I have the one Oak Meadow suggests using.

It's not HO or Western Civ.

 

It's published under Glencoe and is called World History.

 

I would agree with Lori D and think she hit it on the nail. (btw, thanks for taking the time to be so thorough in your reviews and opinions Lori! It's a great help!)

 

Honestly I can't say there is any history or science program that isn't at least a bit even if subtle about being anti-Catholic/religion.

 

And the few catholic texts are very sparse and narrowly written.

 

I tend to combine, have lots of conversation, flat out skip what isn't necessary. So that is how I plan to use this text starting in a few weeks.

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I have the one Oak Meadow suggests using.

It's not HO or Western Civ.

 

It's published under Glencoe and is called World History.

 

I would agree with Lori D and think she hit it on the nail. (btw, thanks for taking the time to be so thorough in your reviews and opinions Lori! It's a great help!)

 

Honestly I can't say there is any history or science program that isn't at least a bit even if subtle about being anti-Catholic/religion.

 

And the few catholic texts are very sparse and narrowly written.

 

I tend to combine, have lots of conversation, flat out skip what isn't necessary. So that is how I plan to use this text starting in a few weeks.

 

Perhaps a link or an ISBN number?

 

Thank you!

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Speilvogel as well. I wonder what the differences are in that and his other materials...

 

I have no idea. I was able to purchase the OM guides and text set at a very reasonable price, so I grabbed them while I could.:)

 

It's got to be briefer than western civ bc it only has 6 units/982 pages.

 

It shows 1030+ pages, but everything after page 982 is glossary, index, and so forth...

 

It appears geared towards high school too.

 

built-in national geographic references for altas and geography... someone care to compare TOC on the various versions?

Edited by Martha
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