Jump to content

Menu

while I am at it....can I get reviews of all of the Uncle Eric books?


Recommended Posts

My 9th and 10th graders are taking government this semester because of the election.  So I am now in search of a economics course for the next semester.  I am considering the "penny candy" book along with the study guide.  I think I will need to supplement that with something else.  But I wanted to have opinions on the book and study guide.

 

I am also thinking that because my kids are doing Government now (instead of their senior year), I might want to have them read some of the Uncle Eric books their senior year as sort of a recap or refresher.  But again, I was wondering if you all had any reviews of any of the books. (good, bad, indifferent.)

 

thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Uncle Eric books on government are wonderful. Penny Candy would be my favourite. I didn't like WWII from a homeschoolers perspective as I found it way too biased for a teenager. Some bias is ok, but this one was disturbing in some cases, ie it paralleled the Holocaust (close up cold blooded killing) with Britain's bombing campaigns. But his economics books are great. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My 9th and 10th graders are taking government this semester because of the election.  So I am now in search of a economics course for the next semester.  I am considering the "penny candy" book along with the study guide.  I think I will need to supplement that with something else.  But I wanted to have opinions on the book and study guide.

 

I am also thinking that because my kids are doing Government now (instead of their senior year), I might want to have them read some of the Uncle Eric books their senior year as sort of a recap or refresher.  But again, I was wondering if you all had any reviews of any of the books. (good, bad, indifferent.)

 

thanks.

 

An acquaintance wrote a critique of Uncle Eric which is not complementary. It's sort of long to post in its entirety, but if you're interested in an opposing POV, you can PM me and I'll e-mail the article to you (I have the author's permission to do so).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We've read a couple of them - Whatever Happened to Penny Candy and Whatever Happened to Justice.  They were worth reading even if we didn't agree with a lot of what the author wrote.  Whatever Happened to Penny Candy created some huge discussions in our house with the teens.  His writing takes something that's very complicated and makes it relatively understandable.  After reading that book, the teens were asking me all kinds of questions about the government and economy.  They were asking about the recession in 08-09-ish (because they remember the effect it had on our family) and the housing crash (which is talked about in the book).  Anyway, I don't regret having them read it just because of the discussions we started having.  Whatever Happened to Justice was a more difficult read, IMO.  My 13 year-old struggled with it a little.  It was still worth reading for us.  The essay "I, Pencil" is in there (which is on a bunch of reading lists). 

 

I don't plan to read the others, so I don't know about those (we're more of a math and science family).

 

About bias - my teens are oppositional to everything anyone says, anyway.   :tongue_smilie:  You could tell them the sky is blue and they would insist it's something else (and bring you evidence from Google showing you how wrong you are). 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just so you know "all of the Uncle Eric books" means 13 books total, not just the government and economic ones.

 

I think they're overall good, but I'd balance them out with other sources. He leans libertarian. Mine used them in paid classes, but I had my kids find an article every week with an opposing viewpoint for each of the chapters to discuss with me. He does a good job analyzing other viewpoints, but I want mine thinking themselves.

 

My oldest is an accounting major and is taking economics now, and he's glad that I had him look at both sides. His professor now is on the conservative side, but he also expects an understanding of the different approaches.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

They're very biased to a conservative perspective. I wouldn't use them as an overview text because they're so biased but they might be good with sources from the other side to look at different viewpoints or if they represent your views and just wanted them read for that reason and not as a true economics/government overview.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Similar to Evanthe, we read 2 books -- Penny Candy and Are You Liberal Conservative Confused -- and found them useful for simplifying complex topics, and DSs enjoyed them. They are good "beginner" books in that sense, but also "beginner" in that the author's viewpoint is extremely libertarian/conservative, and, for me, it was wise to balance that out with other views and other resources.

 

I previewed the World War 1 and World War 2 Uncle Eric books and thought they were so extreme in opinion and bias that they not even useful as supplements from alternative perspectives, so I did not include those in our middle school or high school history studies. (For a more balanced and clear explanation of the complicated events leading up to WW1 and WW2, I actually used some of the chapters from SWB's Story of the World vol. 4 as a starting point, and then we used other materials to flesh it out and go deep.)

 

No experience with any of the other books.

 

One thing I do appreciate is that author Richard Maybury is VERY clear and upfront in his preface as to exactly what his worldview and bias is, so there are no surprises if you go ahead with any of his books. You might read the preface or author introduction to any of the books you are considering and see if that perspective fits in, or not, with your goals and needs.

 

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

Edited by Lori D.
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...