Hello! I lurk in spurts and post rarely...have a ? re: CHOW editions

[InHisGrip]

Child's History of the World can be found on SL's website for $28, but it is revised with racial slurs removed from the text. Can anyone give me an example of an edit? Thanks -

[Zoo Keeper]

I got the original edition out through inter-library loan; this is what I can remember:

 

It was obvious that Hillyer believed (as was common in "educated" and "scientific" circles of that time) in a view of evolution that has white men on the top and dark skinned "lesser races" at the bottom. Though he does not come right out and say it, he repeatedly refers to different ethnic groups as "yellows", "blacks," "browns". He does this and makes a comment that ___________(insert some historical figure here) was "smart/strong/tough" etc. even thoough he was a "yellow/brown/black".

 

That was one aspect of the older version that kept glaring at me. The constant categorizing of people as white, yellow, black, brown, etc.

I don't use these labels, and I don't want my children to think it is okay to constantly be labeling others and sterotyping.

Hillyer also seems to assume that anyone reading the book is a white "Christian" (and he uses that term broadly, Protestant, Catholic, etc.).

 

The updated versions are well worth the money; Rainbow Resource and Sonlight both sell an updated version for a resonable cost.

[Sunshine State Sue]

CHOW was the first homeschool purchase I tossed in the trash. I remember reading aloud to my husband from maybe page 7:

The first civilized people were white.

I didn't get any further.

[meet me in paris]

CHOW was the first homeschool purchase I tossed in the trash. I remember reading aloud to my husband from maybe page 7:

 

I didn't get any further.

 

:huh: holy cow. I would have pitched it, too.

[stripe]

CHOW was the first homeschool purchase I tossed in the trash. I remember reading aloud to my husband from maybe page 7:

 

I didn't get any further.

The line that made me laugh the most was his claim that most people in the world are white. Was that really true even when the book was published? Anyway here's the section you referenced....I've tried to keep his formatting.

 

P 22-23:

 

All of the people who lived in the country of the Tigris and Euphrates were white. We don't know how nor when nor where colored people first lived, though it is interesting to guess. There were, we think, just three different white families and from these three families all the white people in the world are descended. Yes, your family came from here, 'way, 'way, 'way, 'way back. So you will want to know the names of these three families and which one was your own. They were:

 

The Indo-Europeans, often called Aryans,

The Semites, and

 

 

The Hamites.

Most of us belong to the Aryan family, some are Semites, but very few in this part of the world are Hamites.

 

If your name is Henry or Charles or William, you are probably an Aryan.

 

If it is Moses or Solomon, you are probably a Semite.

 

If it is Shufu or Rameses, you are probably a Hamite.

 

[InHisGrip]

Oh, goodness :tongue_smilie:. Thanks for the details. I will definitely check into the revised SL version -- I like the looks of it, too - (that's really important, ya know).

 

I wonder how much revision was done. Anyone here know or have the revised book?

[Zoo Keeper]

We have and use the revised version; you can pm me with questions, if you like.