Found a nice spine & supplemental books for Civil War

[Saddlemomma]

We use TOG for history, and generally, we really like the books.  However, I'm focusing on the Civil War during Y3U3 and just didn't really like the core, in-depth, or the read-aloud books for this subject.  So I went on the hunt and found the following which DD and I are really enjoying so we thought it might be nice to share them:

 

• Two Miserable Presidents - (Spine I purchased as a Kindle book from Amazon) DD and I are loving this book.  It's very engaging and gets to the heart of the matter, without glorifying one side over the other.  So far it seems pretty well-balanced.  DD and I have had some wonderful, in-depth discussions prompted just by reading this.
• Voices From the Civil War - I found this in our library and am using it as a supplement to provide primary source documents to reinforce the sentiments of the people affected by this terribly conflict.  It's broken into chapters according to the stages of the conflict which I'm lining up with Two Miserable Presidents.
• American Voices From the Civil War - Another book like the one above but broken down into different categories such as "The War and Medicine", "To Be a Soldier", and "On the Battlefield".
• The Brothers' War: Civil War Voices in Verse - Poetry written by J. Patrick Lewis about the Civil War.  Each poem has large b/w photos from the Civil War. The latter pages of the book includes a map and timeline of the war, a note about the photography, and the author's notes about the poems. I'm having DD read one to two poems a day and discuss them with me.  After the discussion we will read the author's notes about those poems read.

In addition, we're reading actual documents such as: The Fugitive Slave Act and the Secession Declarations of the Southern states.

 

I changed the read-aloud from Across Five Aprils to Heroes of History: Abraham Lincoln.  As we read this book and Two Miserable Presidents, I make sure to point out the weaknesses, pitfalls, and mistakes of Lincoln's presidency (such as the issue of the Constitution with respect to States' rights and declaring war without congressional approval).

 

We just started this unit and are finding that the causes of the war were not as cut and dried as some think.  There were serious, legitimate concerns on both sides regarding the slavery/states' rights issue.  On a moral note - the abolitionists were in the right, but without slavery the South was facing the decimation of their way of life and argued that the North had no right, per the Constitution--Article IV and 10th Amendment specifically-- to dictate how to operate their states.  Both sides were right and wrong at the same time.  These are quite heavy dilemmas to sort through and discuss.  We find ourselves trying to come up with alternative, peaceful solutions and "what if" scenarios.

 

We have 5 weeks to go over the Civil War, and it's becoming so fascinating and deep I'm not sure we're going to be finished in that time!  I can tell you that I was never exposed to this caliber of information when I attended my schools -- even high school! (I'm 50)  No wonder I'm finding it so tragic and enthralling at the same time.

[FarmingMomma]

Thanks for sharing!  I am printing off this list to stick in my planning binder for when we get to the Civil War.  I remember reading a ton of books about the Civil War outside of school, and comparing it to the woefully inadequate information we were given in our school textbooks.  My uncle received a book about the Civil War at Christmas, and told me it was a really excellent book.  I thought I wrote down the title but I'm not finding it now.  I'll check with him and post later what it was.

 

[scrapbabe]

Thank you!

[ScoutTN]

Thanks!

[momto2Cs]

Thank you! I love finding new books to add to my ever-growing list of history related titles.