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Has anyone seen/used The Story of Civilization series by Will Durant


Kfamily
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Here is a link to one on Amazon that you can look through:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Story-Civilization-Reformation-European-1300-1564/dp/1567310176/ref=pd_sim_b_5#_

 

I recently picked up a used copy of his Story of Philosophy and did so since I recognized the name. Highlands Latin School uses some of his books so I was curious...especially to see if they went further than the Dorothy Mills books and Suzanne Stauss Art books. I would love to find something I love that covers all of history. It seems this set stops with Napoleon. That is further than Mills' books and Art's books but still not as far as I would like.

 

Has anyone used these books or could share their opinion of them?

 

I will still be using the books by Dorothy Mills but would perhaps add some of these to cover the areas not covered with her books.

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They are going to go much deeper than the other authors mentioned. I love this series, but there are a few things to note:

 

They are huge. 700 to 1000 pages each.

They are written for adults and cover topics of a se*ual nature, violence, etc.

The books are dated in places as most were written from the 1940s-60s or so.

 

I really enjoy his writing style and the way the books are organized. We will be using the series as a spine to our history courses in high school (along with his Story of Philosophy as well.)

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They are going to go much deeper than the other authors mentioned. I love this series, but there are a few things to note:

 

They are huge. 700 to 1000 pages each.

They are written for adults and cover topics of a se*ual nature, violence, etc.

The books are dated in places as most were written from the 1940s-60s or so.

 

I really enjoy his writing style and the way the books are organized. We will be using the series as a spine to our history courses in high school (along with his Story of Philosophy as well.)

 

Agreeing with this. Dh has a very old set of these books, and they always looked intimidating to me. But when I began to see them mentioned in homeschooling discussions, I took a look at one and found it surprisingly readable. I wouldn't exactly call them "conversational" in style, but I've seen other history texts that are far drier.

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Thanks Melissa, this is just what I need to know.

 

Are you planning on using the entire series? I'm wondering which ones I would add to what we are already using...

 

We'll be using Dorothy Mills books on The Ancient World, Greece, Rome and the Middle Ages. We are already using her Renaissance and Reformation Times this year. We'll also be using all of the Fran Rutherford guides which includes some history. I have too many books to use for High School. I'm not sure I could get to them all in the four years we have for all of this reading.:lol: (I have Bishop's Middle Ages, The Discoverers, The Creators, etc. by Boorstin, How Should We Then Live, Hamilton's Echo of Greece, The Greek Way, The Roman Way, etc. etc.)

 

I need to manage with what I have but...:D

 

I really do feel like I have a gap with modern history and would consider a replacement for our American History. Right now I have American: A Narrative in two volumes. I need to find the brief version in one volume.

 

What will you be using for American History? What for modern world history?

 

Sorry, I hope this is not too many questions!

Thanks.

Edited by Kfamily
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I do plan to use the whole series, but we run two history cycles at the same time so the books will be spread out. I plan to use a break down similar to the House of Education Years 7-11 except in dd's 8th - 12th grade years. Along side that we will be doing another ancient history cycle over five years.

 

Modern/American history

 

I am still undecided.

 

I do know that we will be using several TC courses, so I will look into the books each course recommends. We also have the 20+ volume Annals of America and will be drawing from them heavily for primary sources.

 

I really like Boorstin, so I will likely have them read through his The Americans trilogy. Over the summer, at a library sale I picked up (among many other things :D) A History of the American People - Johnson, A People's History of the United States - Zinn and A History of the English Speaking Peoples Since 1900 - Roberts (this is supposed to continue Churchill's series.) But I haven't read any of them yet, so I can't comment on them. I also have VanLoon's Story of America, which I really enjoy but won't likely use do to time constraints. While I enjoyed it, I think there are better books out there to cover American history.

 

All that to say I don't really know yet. I will be keeping an eye on what you decide to use though. :D

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I'm wanting to be sure I understand correctly...

 

Will you be doing HEO's years 7-11 but with ancient history as an additional subject each year? If so, that would be so interesting. I have seen the old PNEU samples and they include ancient history along with a national history and world/other country history each year and have considered this. I actually had a plan for this but I thought it would be too messy (and that others would worry about me...:lol::D). If you're doing something like this I can feel more confident.

 

And thanks for the information on the Roberts book (which continues the Churchill books-History of the English Speaking Peoples) since I forgot to mention in my earlier long list of books that I want to use these too.

 

P.S. You found some great books at the library sale!

 

And I just realized that Memoria Press will be releasing guides for The Ancient World, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome (D. Mills) which may be a good thing...I will definitely be looking at these when they come out.

After this year I will have an outline and lesson plans for The Renaissance and Reformation book too. There is a free outline of this book online too.

 

http://webspace.webring.com/people/bt/thephunnyfarm/renrefstudy.html

 

I have looked it over but decided I will end up doing my lesson plans differently. Some of the links do not work, but it is nice to have some ideas.

 

I really need to get ahead and start reading.

Edited by Kfamily
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And I just realized that Memoria Press will be releasing guides for The Ancient World, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome (D. Mills) which may be a good thing...I will definitely be looking at these when they come out.

After this year I will have an outline and lesson plans for The Renaissance and Reformation book too. There is a free outline of this book online too.

 

http://webspace.webring.com/people/bt/thephunnyfarm/renrefstudy.html

 

I have looked it over but decided I will end up doing my lesson plans differently. Some of the links do not work, but it is nice to have some ideas.

g.

 

Do you have a source for the information on Memoria Press releasing guides for Dorothy Mills books? I have all but the Ancient World and would love to see a guide for there. Thanks!

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This is a pdf of the most recent catalog (Spring 2010). If you check on page 35 (page 35 of your pdf) you will see a classical studies curriculum map at the bottom. This has the Dorothy Mills books included with a star next to them. If you read at the bottom it indicates that the star means the book is to be released soon.

 

Hope that helps...:001_smile:

 

http://www.memoriapress.com/catalog/SpringCatalog2010.pdf

 

The guide is mentioned here:

 

See post #8 in this thread...

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=203711&highlight=dorothy+mills+guides+memoria+press

 

I think I read about it on their forums too.

Edited by Kfamily
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Has anyone used these books or could share their opinion of them?

 

 

 

I would not call these K-8 books. I started reading them in college, and when I got to the end, would start at the beginning again, taking about 5 years per cycle. I think I got through them about 3.5 times when I got busy with kiddo and when I was downsizing, I got rid of my 1981-purchased set. May do it again after I retire. I liked these books. Solid, clear writing. But not for K-8.

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I sold my set of these to someone on the boards - they belonged to my fil, who is an avid reader and enjoys all things historical.

 

We decided not to use them b/c they were so HUGE, honestly. The writing style was engaging, but I just didn't feel they were worth to keep around.

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I'm wanting to be sure I understand correctly...

 

Will you be doing HEO's years 7-11 but with ancient history as an additional subject each year?

 

Yes, we always do American/World history and ancient history. Normally I only do one ancient civilization, but this coming year we've decided to do Greece and Rome. We will be using the TC Famous Greeks and Famous Romans along with the Memoria Press FM of Greece and FM of Rome (with workbooks.) We will also be reading the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid along with TC lectures and study guides. I can't wait!

 

We are also doing a one year American history survey before beginning the five year in-depth history cycle. Then I plan to do:

 

8th - HEO 7 timeframe and Durant's Oriental Heritage (Book 1) which covers Egypt, Mesopotamia and an intro to Japan and China

9th - HEO 8 timeframe and Ancient Greece

10th - HEO 9 timeframe and finish Ancient Greece, begin Ancient Rome

11th - HEO 10 timeframe and finish Ancient Rome, some Middle Ages

12th - HEO 11 timeframe and Eastern Civilization

 

That's the plan anyway. :tongue_smilie:

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Melissa,

 

Your plan looks great! You've inspired me to go back to my original plan and look at it again. We're doing an adapted Year 8 now and I really want to cover the ancients for several reasons, one of which includes the need to have some background as we cover works such as Agamemnon and Antigone through Classical Writing. This would work much better to do ancient history each year along with our main rotation. I really like the flexibility in being eclectic.:D I also like the idea of breaking the study of the ancients into manageable sections. I think we can cover more of it and in better depth this way. I know my dd and she would not be thrilled to read all of the heavier works of the ancients all in one year.

 

Thanks for sharing with me.

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