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My dd is studying world history for her senior year in order to fill some gaps in her history education and to provide context for her Great Books work. This is our routine so far:

 

1. Read on the topic in one of two textbooks: The Earth and Its People or The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures and take notes

 

2. Map the region studied (she is weak in geography and we have talked about doing current country overlays)

 

3. Place entries on the timeline ( I made it as non-time-consuming as possible)

 

4. Primary source work with DBQs

 

5. TC lectures from Foundations of Western Civilizations

 

6. Additional activities involving art, world religions, and movies

 

This week, I skipped the textbook reading since the TC lecture was very solid. Dd then read The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt and The Tales of Ancient Egypt to fill in the more colorful aspects.I know these books are not high school level, but I still try to incorporate some enjoyable work. My question is, "What else is out there along the same line?" I am reading Thomas Cahill's The Gift of the Jews and am not yet feeling the love for it. I have Edith Hamilton's The Greek Way and Olivia Coolidge's Roman People for later.

 

When some of you talk about not using text books, but living books for high school history, do you mean that you are replacing the textbook with something like SWB's books on Ancient and Medieval History or reading things like Guns, Germs, and Steel and The Prince. I know many just follow the Great Books route, but I don't have a four years, only one. Or do I forget the extra biographies or scientific discovery books and just go with the text and our literature studies?

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Well, I have no idea what the term "living books" means so I don't know if I've used them or not! But I do know I have avoided text books like a plague.

 

I think popular books such as Guns, Germs and Steel, or the breezy but excellent A History of the World in Six Glasses or Walking the Bible or even Short History of Nearly Everything can make for a wonderful overview of history. Even if you are trying to cram in an overview of world history in a single year, you can still go primarily with a combination of Great Books, historical fiction and biographies, popular history books and Teaching Company lectures. Keep the text books handy as a quick reference guide -- look to them to answer questions, to clarify a relationship. A quick timeline and map work are both tremendously useful. You are giving her the context she needs for future reading and studying.

 

We did a fast overview of world history (filling in gaps mostly) last year and my son's reading list included:

 

History of the World in Six Glasses

selected chapters from Walking the Bible

Story of Philosophy (A DK book)

Genesis and Exodus

Iliad (with Dr. Vandiver's lectures)

Shakespeare's Tempest

Lost World (A Conan Doyle)

Lost City of Z

Kim

Candide

Heart of Darkness

The Things They Carried

 

And we watched some excellent documentary series, including one on the British Empire and a BBC series on WWI.

 

He did maps, wrote essays and short bios of historical figures or context papers. It was a terrific year!

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Well, I have no idea what the term "living books" means so I don't know if I've used them or not! But I do know I have avoided text books like a plague.

 

I think popular books such as Guns, Germs and Steel, or the breezy but excellent A History of the World in Six Glasses or Walking the Bible or even Short History of Nearly Everything can make for a wonderful overview of history. Even if you are trying to cram in an overview of world history in a single year, you can still go primarily with a combination of Great Books, historical fiction and biographies, popular history books and Teaching Company lectures. Keep the text books handy as a quick reference guide -- look to them to answer questions, to clarify a relationship. A quick timeline and map work are both tremendously useful. You are giving her the context she needs for future reading and studying.

 

The crazy woman to the north of you is once again jumping up and down, yelling, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" Those are exactly the kinds of books we are looking for. KareAnne mentioned that her dd was reading The Mental Floss History of the World so I have that on order, but A History of the World in Six Glasses looks fantastic. As a side note, both dh and I enjoyed Wine and War. Is Walking the Bible the one they made the movie out of? Maybe I am thinking of the documentary tracing Marco Polo's journeys. Dd read Bryson book last year for a science class and loved it. We were thinking of following up on one or two of the weirder scientists for this year.

 

Thanks to one of your previous recommendations, we are already reading Sophie's World with Story of Philosophy.

We did a fast overview of world history (filling in gaps mostly) last year and my son's reading list included:

 

History of the World in Six Glasses

selected chapters from Walking the Bible

Story of Philosophy (A DK book)

Genesis and Exodus - next week

Iliad (with Dr. Vandiver's lectures) - just started previewing these

Shakespeare's Tempest

Lost World (A Conan Doyle)

Lost City of Z

Kim

Candide on list

Heart of Darkness on list

The Things They Carried my oldest son did this last year, I forgot about it

 

And we watched some excellent documentary series, including one on the British Empire and a BBC series on WWI.

 

He did maps, wrote essays and short bios of historical figures or context papers. It was a terrific year!

 

Thanks so much for giving me more ideas. My dd is doing well and enjoying being at home, although I know some days are lonely. It is a joy to see her face light up while listening to Seamus Heaney reading Beowulf and she is way more relaxed. This first month has been about getting used to working with each other, seeing what her skills are, and noting her likes and dislikes. Now we are picking up the pace and all is well, especially since she doesn't see me sitting on bed late at night reviewing all the materials and chewing my nails down to the quick.:D

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Dd and I use the Mental Floss history for very, very quick basics, then move on to "real" books. We're doing a more leisurely look at the late middle ages through the early modern period, so of course your list won't look like this; we're spending way too much time on it. But just to give you an idea:

 

She's reading relevant chapters from the History of the World in Six Glasses, a chapter on the black death from a book on plagues, a few biographies, selected chapters from a book on the centrality of trade to history (vs. the rulers and wars model), and a book on the sugar trade and its international ramifications from wars to slavery to teatime. Bill Bryson just came out with a new book on the history of private life, domestic spaces and house architecture (titled At Home) which includes a bit of information on the medieval great hall and other tidbits like the development of privies, medieval kitchens, etc. (He also argues for the centrality of domestic history; as he shows, basing his investigations in domesticity inevitably brings him to wars, international trade, politics, and all the other stuff kids get in horribly dry form in textbooks.) We're reading about the English language from the Normal invasion to the codification of spelling in Johnson's Dictionary in 1755. As part of her chemistry course, I'm reading The Disappearing Spoon aloud to dd, and it includes a whole panorama of the history of chemistry from medieval alchemy to the latest attempts to find (and name) new elements. Dd uses a timeline extensively to order the things we read about, as we are not doing a pre-made, tidy chronological history. We're also reading lots of British lit (dh is a British citizen, dd is half British, so much of this is her personal heritage); right now she is listening to Martin Jarvis and cast read The Canterbury Tales. She also reads some historical fiction. There's some stunningly good stuff out there.

 

We have a number of DVDs, ranging from Terry Jones's Medieval Lives to Helen Mirren in Elizabeth I to Castle and Siege Engines. We're following on the internet a French project (costing millions) which is building a castle using only tools, materials, and techniques available in the middle ages.

 

We're attending a Renaissance Fair -- dd had an unexpected jousting lesson a few weeks ago from which she is still recovering -- taking a trip up to the Huntington Library in LA to look at manuscripts, early printed books, and portraits, and touring a model of a sailing ship from the early 1800s (and I'm trying to get us tickets for actually sailing on it). We're seeing four Shakespeare plays on stage. I have CDs of English ballads, along with a DVD of Renaissance court dances we're going to try out in an in-depth look at court culture (paintings, costume, country houses and Elizabeth's tours, sonnets, etc.). Found a weird book at a used bookstore in which you cut out and assemble a huge cardboard Elizabethan-era manor house with all its appurtenances. DD is also a horse fanatic, so I'm having her do an interview with a friend who edited a book on the history of horsemanship in the Renaissance.

 

One of dd's year-end assignments is to act as "historical consultant" and critique the accuracy of a movie of her choice set in the time period she's studying.

 

If this seems overwhelming, it is the focus of our learning; dd is definitely a humanities kid with a penchant for physics on the side.

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She's reading relevant chapters from the History of the World in Six Glasses, a chapter on the black death from a book on plagues, a few biographies, selected chapters from a book on the centrality of trade to history (vs. the rulers and wars model), and a book on the sugar trade and its international ramifications from wars to slavery to teatime. Bill Bryson just came out with a new book on the history of private life, domestic spaces and house architecture (titled At Home) which includes a bit of information on the medieval great hall and other tidbits like the development of privies, medieval kitchens, etc. (He also argues for the centrality of domestic history; as he shows, basing his investigations in domesticity inevitably brings him to wars, international trade, politics, and all the other stuff kids get in horribly dry form in textbooks.)

When I saw the bolded part, I thought the Aronson book on sugar must be out, but I checked Amazon and it's not published until next month. Which book are you reading now? (And thanks for mentioning the new Bryson book, it looks great — I just ordered it.)

 

One of dd's year-end assignments is to act as "historical consultant" and critique the accuracy of a movie of her choice set in the time period she's studying.

What a fabulous idea for an assignment! DS does this sort of thing all the time, he's always pointing out that some Greek soldier in the background of a documentary has the wrong helmet style or their shield's the wrong shape or something, I love the idea of making it into an actual assigment. :thumbup1:

 

Jackie

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It is the Aronson book on sugar; I used "she's reading" in a rather sweeping way, I'm afraid, referring to what is as well as what's on her plate for the next few months.

 

We're huge Aronson fans. Dd thinks his book on the Salem witch trials is, so far, the best history book written.

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I know you're asking more about topical books than "overview" books, but here are a few I recently ordered that looked interesting to me:

 

The Human Web: A Bird's Eye View of World History

 

An Intimate History of Humanity (Actually I've had this on my shelf for about 10 years and still haven't gotten to it, but I really must!)

 

Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud

 

 

A couple that are slightly more focused:

 

When Asia Was the World: Traveling Merchants, Scholars, Warriors, and Monks Who Created the "Riches of the "East"

 

Worldly Goods: A New History of the Renaissance (Another book that spent 10 years in a box, that I need to get to in the next 6 months or so!)

 

I also recently bought History of the World in Six Glasses, but it's stashed in the closet as a Christmas present for DH, so I haven't read that yet either. :tongue_smilie:

 

Jackie

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It is the Aronson book on sugar; I used "she's reading" in a rather sweeping way, I'm afraid, referring to what is as well as what's on her plate for the next few months.

I'm really looking forward to reading it myself, plus I'm trying to put together a year of geography for next year that somehow combines several different themes or threads: nonwestern cultures, world religions, and trade/commodities as links between cultures and regions throughout history. I've been trying to put together a list of books like Sugar Changed the World; Salt: A World History; Tulipmania; Cabbages & Kings; Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How it Transformed the World; Tea: The Drink that Changed the World; Cotton: Biography of a Revolutionary Fiber; Spice: The History of Temptation; Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World; The True History of Chocolate; Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World, etc. (I think it's funny how most of the subtitles include "changed the world.") I would really like to find more books about trade goods other than food though! Or maybe I should do a "History & Science of Food" course and combine the above books with some Kitchen Chemistry books. Oy. Too many choices!

 

We're huge Aronson fans. Dd thinks his book on the Salem witch trials is, so far, the best history book written.

This is another little thematic unit I'm dying to do, but I have no idea "where" to put it. I have a Teaching Company course called "The Terror of History: Mystics, Heretics, and Witches in the Western Tradition," which I'd love to use with Aronson's book, assorted enthnographic texts, articles about the way "witches" are being treating in present day Africa, etc. But when to fit it in??? :confused:

 

Too many books, too many ideas, too little time, and too few kids! Sigh.

 

Jackie

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Well, then, SM3, just look what you've done. Another several hundred dollars of books are in my amazon cart, and I have a library list several pages long. (As Jackie says, too many books, not enough children!) Enough with the provocative questions already!

 

Seriously, though, I'm glad your gorgeous daughter is more relaxed and you're getting into a groove. Wonderful!

 

Oh, and as long as Bill Bryson has come up in this conversation, I want to recommend again the new book Seeing Further, out next month in the US. He wrote the introduction, and the authors of the essays include Richard Dawkins, Margaret Atwood (on the development of the "mad scientist" in literature!) and lots of other interesting folks.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Seeing-Further-Science-Discovery-Society/dp/0061999768/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1286633315&sr=8-1

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Oh, and as long as Bill Bryson has come up in this conversation, I want to recommend again the new book Seeing Further, out next month in the US. He wrote the introduction, and the authors of the essays include Richard Dawkins, Margaret Atwood (on the development of the "mad scientist" in literature!) and lots of other interesting folks.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Seeing-Further-Science-Discovery-Society/dp/0061999768/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1286633315&sr=8-1

This looks great! I especially like that it's a collection of articles, which makes it easier to dip into. I have an entire shelf of history of science & mathematics books, not to mention all the TC courses, and I'd happily do two years just on the history and philosophy of science and mathematics. Do you think colleges would notice if I graduated DS from high school at, say....22? :tongue_smilie:

 

Jackie

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This looks great! I especially like that it's a collection of articles, which makes it easier to dip into. I have an entire shelf of history of science & mathematics books, not to mention all the TC courses, and I'd happily do two years just on the history and philosophy of science and mathematics. Do you think colleges would notice if I graduated DS from high school at, say....22? :tongue_smilie:

 

Jackie

 

It's really delightful! I read the article on balloon flight (along with a few complete letters from Ben Franklin from Morgan's book Not Your Usual Founding Father) to my son this week, and we really enjoyed it. My son is reading Franklin's autobiography, which can be a bit dull in a few parts, so it was interesting to see a different glimpse of Franklin in the letters, and to see a description of the larger world in which he lived, without having to dredge through volumes and volumes. I will confess that until I found this collection, I never really got the Enlightenment. I mean, I knew a lot about it, but had a sort of 'eye-rolling, why the intense intellectual masturba!ion?!' kind of attitude. This collection of essays ties it all together for me.

 

I think they'd notice. ;)

 

ETA: I'm all about the essays and articles these days. I work outside the home, and don't have a ton of time to read entire books (though I do real lots of introductions!). It occurred to me today that this is not an entirely bad thing, because this is the model in many college courses, at least in liberal arts colleges, which use so few textbooks or "spines." For instance, I have been reading selected chapters from a variety of sources, recommended as the "essential readings" along with the TC lectures I'm watching about US history. And honestly? Some of those older historians whose work may have some dated ideas do still contain quite a bit of useful information (I'm thinking here of Builders of the Bay Colony by Samuel Eliot Morison, printed in 1958), and are playful with their language in a way that many current writers are not.

 

I have been thinking about how to ask the question here about themes in the courses that we create for our children. So often we obsess about finding the perfect spine or text, when perhaps we need a guiding question, or a point of entry. Your posts, Jackie, are inspirational for me in that way, because you are thoughtful about organizing principles in your courses.

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I'm really looking forward to reading it myself, plus I'm trying to put together a year of geography for next year that somehow combines several different themes or threads: nonwestern cultures, world religions, and trade/commodities as links between cultures and regions throughout history. I've been trying to put together a list of books like Sugar Changed the World; Salt: A World History; Tulipmania; Cabbages & Kings; Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How it Transformed the World; Tea: The Drink that Changed the World; Cotton: Biography of a Revolutionary Fiber; Spice: The History of Temptation; Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World; The True History of Chocolate; Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World, etc. (I think it's funny how most of the subtitles include "changed the world.") I would really like to find more books about trade goods other than food though! Or maybe I should do a "History & Science of Food" course and combine the above books with some Kitchen Chemistry books. Oy. Too many choices!

 

I have also begun reading a bizarre little book about how an Englishman was sent on an economic spy mission to infiltrate China and steal tea plants so that the English could break the Chinese tea monopoly. This was the beginning of tea plantations in India. Planning for dd to read this one in a couple of years.

 

Have you read any of the histories of the spice trade yet? You need a really strong stomach; it is a horrific story!

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I have also begun reading a bizarre little book about how an Englishman was sent on an economic spy mission to infiltrate China and steal tea plants so that the English could break the Chinese tea monopoly. This was the beginning of tea plantations in India. Planning for dd to read this one in a couple of years.

 

 

Goodness. We should have a rule like the WTM recipe rule -- you must post titles when you refer to a book! :D

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Goodness. We should have a rule like the WTM recipe rule -- you must post titles when you refer to a book! :D

 

Sorry -- I knew you were going to say this but the book was under an enormous pile in my bedroom that I had to dismantle before I got at the title:

For All the Tea in China, by Sarah Rowe. Sorry again!

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I have been thinking about how to ask the question here about themes in the courses that we create for our children. So often we obsess about finding the perfect spine or text, when perhaps we need a guiding question, or a point of entry. Your posts, Jackie, are inspirational for me in that way, because you are thoughtful about organizing principles in your courses.

 

:iagree:

 

One question I've thought about building some readings around is "Who owns water?" There are so many crucial issues about water ownership and control around the world, from Turkey to China to different states here in the US. If I could find some accessible materials I'd love to go off in this direction, both for myself and for dd.

 

Anyone have any ideas?

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This was in the LATimes in the last week:

 

Rerouting a river for water

 

There are many articles too on the Yangtze River and the huge Three Gorges Dam, and many articles on the desertification of northern China. These are the kinds of articles that grab my attention as these were all topics in my grad school classes way back when. We all scoffed at them rerouting Yangtze River water to Beijing, but lo and behold that is what they are doing! And lo and behold Beijing is on the verge of being swallowed by blowing sand.

 

Some historian coined the term "hydraulic society" for understanding Chinese history. Like the Egyptians, they either have too much or too little, and controlling it -- maintaining dikes and rice paddies -- was the key to political power, and still is today.

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I'm really looking forward to reading it myself, plus I'm trying to put together a year of geography for next year that somehow combines several different themes or threads: nonwestern cultures, world religions, and trade/commodities as links between cultures and regions throughout history. I've been trying to put together a list of books like ...

 

 

 

Your list looks great. One other book about which I've heard good things is Nathaniel's Nutmeg: Or, The True and Incredible Adventures of the Spice Trader Who Changed The Course Of History by Giles Milton.

 

Regards,

Kareni

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Your list looks great. One other book about which I've heard good things is Nathaniel's Nutmeg: Or, The True and Incredible Adventures of the Spice Trader Who Changed The Course Of History by Giles Milton.

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

This is one I stopped reading two-thirds of the way through; it was just overwhelmingly depressing and violent in parts. Fascinating, but depressing.

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Some browsing on Amazon has turned up these non-food oriented titles that look like they might be fun to dip into:

 

Jewels: A Secret History by Victoria Finlay

 

Pearls: A Natural History by Neil Landman and others

 

7000 Years of Jewelry: An International History and Illustrated Survey from the Collections of the British Museum edited by Hugh Tait

 

Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay

 

Diamonds Famous & Fatal: The History, Mystery and Lore of the World's Most Famous Gem by Leo Kendall

 

Regards,

Kareni

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Jennifer, How exactly did you use Walking the Bible? The book is about 400 pages and our library has it. Did you choose only those chapters that went with Genesis and Exodus? The Hebrew Old Testament is our literary focus next week combined with our history which is why I was looking at The Gift of the Jews. We will be looking at allusions, especially biblical, and are using Nicole's recommendation for Brush Up On Your Bible.

 

I appreciate all the suggestions and am slowly working my way through Amazon, the library, and reviews. A book some of you and your high schoolers may enjoy is The Bones of the Master. Love this book.

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I had read the entire Walking the Bible and loved it, btw. Just giving it a plug for all the avid readers here!

 

I don't know where I saved my notes from last year (probably on a thumb drive in another room), but I didn't have my ds read that much of the book, but it would have been hard to decide which parts to assign. Looking through my copy now I'm thinking I had him read the introduction and most (if not all) of the first section before they go to Egypt. I also found some recent news articles on the Palestinian and Israeli conflict because the thing that makes Walking the Bible so compelling is how REAL the stories are to the people who live in that land. The stories are physically tangible to them, which to me made so much of the modern conflict understandable.

 

There is a DVD version which I haven't seen.

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It's really delightful! I read the article on balloon flight (along with a few complete letters from Ben Franklin from Morgan's book Not Your Usual Founding Father) to my son this week, and we really enjoyed it. My son is reading Franklin's autobiography, which can be a bit dull in a few parts, so it was interesting to see a different glimpse of Franklin in the letters, and to see a description of the larger world in which he lived, without having to dredge through volumes and volumes. I will confess that until I found this collection, I never really got the Enlightenment. I mean, I knew a lot about it, but had a sort of 'eye-rolling, why the intense intellectual masturba!ion?!' kind of attitude. This collection of essays ties it all together for me.

 

I think they'd notice. ;)

 

ETA: I'm all about the essays and articles these days. I work outside the home, and don't have a ton of time to read entire books (though I do real lots of introductions!). It occurred to me today that this is not an entirely bad thing, because this is the model in many college courses, at least in liberal arts colleges, which use so few textbooks or "spines." For instance, I have been reading selected chapters from a variety of sources, recommended as the "essential readings" along with the TC lectures I'm watching about US history. And honestly? Some of those older historians whose work may have some dated ideas do still contain quite a bit of useful information (I'm thinking here of Builders of the Bay Colony by Samuel Eliot Morison, printed in 1958), and are playful with their language in a way that many current writers are not.

 

I have been thinking about how to ask the question here about themes in the courses that we create for our children. So often we obsess about finding the perfect spine or text, when perhaps we need a guiding question, or a point of entry. Your posts, Jackie, are inspirational for me in that way, because you are thoughtful about organizing principles in your courses.

 

One of the reasons I peruse AP syllabi is not because I want to duplicate the AP experience at home, but they have central themes that help me formulate my plan; I am not limited to one resource. I look at those with a tinge of regret, because some teachers have come up with some amazing plans ans questions that will never get the focus and effort they deserve in a time-crunched AP class.

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:iagree:

 

One question I've thought about building some readings around is "Who owns water?" There are so many crucial issues about water ownership and control around the world, from Turkey to China to different states here in the US. If I could find some accessible materials I'd love to go off in this direction, both for myself and for dd.

 

Anyone have any ideas?

 

I'm really interested in this topic, too. I would love to do a Contemporary Global Issues sort of course, maybe in 12th grade, where we cover topics like corporate farming/food production, Big Pharma, the World Bank & *"economic development," resource rights (esp. water & oil), uses & control of media, etc.

 

Here are a few books on water that I have wishlisted on Amazon:

Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization (I think this one looks particularly good!)

Water: A Natural History (this focuses on water use in America, and especially pollution)

Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water

When the Rivers Run Dry

 

*I have a funny/sad story about "economic development." A friend of mine did his fieldwork in Papua New Guinea and he told me that someone from some international development agency came into the Highlands and told a particular tribe that they were going to start raising cattle. These people raise pigs, they have no experience whatsoever with cattle — in fact, the entire culture and economy of Highlands tribes are based on pigs — but some bright spark in an office somewhere decided that these people should raise cattle and sell the beef to SE Asian markets. So they got the chief to sign a paper with an X promising that they would build a fenced area for the cattle. They built a fence from the village to the ridgetop... and then stopped. So, basically they had a 3 sided, open-ended corral. The development folks delivered their cattle, who were released into the corral. The people were terrified of these huge weird animals and were very happy when they wandered up to the ridge..... and kept going. Later they discovered that the paper the chief had put his X on was a loan contract and the tribe owed the bank thousands of dollars.

 

I think it was Michael Novak who described "economic development" as our attempt to bring the rest of the world up to the level of Newark, New Jersey. :glare:

 

Jackie

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I'm really interested in this topic, too. I would love to do a Contemporary Global Issues sort of course, maybe in 12th grade, where we cover topics like corporate farming/food production, Big Pharma, the World Bank & *"economic development," resource rights (esp. water & oil), uses & control of media, etc.

Jackie

 

I just have a quick minute, but before I forget, you might want to add the very sad article in the current issue of Mother Jones, by Carl Elliott, to your reading list about Big Pharma (assuming you mean pharmaceutical companies). I heard him speak at a bioethics conference, and we struck up a brief email correspondence afterward. If you can't find the article, I can send you the pdf. But that one story that he tells really opens up a world of ethical questions, and would make a great starting point for discussion about marketing as the impetus for "scientific" research, and the moral ramifications of that.

 

Great idea for a course.

 

Do you know of resources concerning water issues in Palestine, by the way?

Edited by Nicole M
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Some browsing on Amazon has turned up these non-food oriented titles that look like they might be fun to dip into:

 

Jewels: A Secret History by Victoria Finlay

 

Pearls: A Natural History by Neil Landman and others

 

7000 Years of Jewelry: An International History and Illustrated Survey from the Collections of the British Museum edited by Hugh Tait

 

Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay

 

Diamonds Famous & Fatal: The History, Mystery and Lore of the World's Most Famous Gem by Leo Kendall

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

Kareni, what a perfect list for an 18-year-old girl with a love of history and a an artistic streak a mile wide. I am going to order the book on color. I think it will work well with her art history, but will also appeal to her on a personal level. Her birthday gifts were a new camera and a day spent at our art museum (at her request).

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I'm really interested in this topic, too. I would love to do a Contemporary Global Issues sort of course, maybe in 12th grade, where we cover topics like corporate farming/food production, Big Pharma, the World Bank & *"economic development," resource rights (esp. water & oil), uses & control of media, etc.

 

Here are a few books on water that I have wishlisted on Amazon:

Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization (I think this one looks particularly good!)

Water: A Natural History (this focuses on water use in America, and especially pollution)

Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water

When the Rivers Run Dry

 

*I have a funny/sad story about "economic development." A friend of mine did his fieldwork in Papua New Guinea and he told me that someone from some international development agency came into the Highlands and told a particular tribe that they were going to start raising cattle. These people raise pigs, they have no experience whatsoever with cattle — in fact, the entire culture and economy of Highlands tribes are based on pigs — but some bright spark in an office somewhere decided that these people should raise cattle and sell the beef to SE Asian markets. So they got the chief to sign a paper with an X promising that they would build a fenced area for the cattle. They built a fence from the village to the ridgetop... and then stopped. So, basically they had a 3 sided, open-ended corral. The development folks delivered their cattle, who were released into the corral. The people were terrified of these huge weird animals and were very happy when they wandered up to the ridge..... and kept going. Later they discovered that the paper the chief had put his X on was a loan contract and the tribe owed the bank thousands of dollars.

 

I think it was Michael Novak who described "economic development" as our attempt to bring the rest of the world up to the level of Newark, New Jersey. :glare:

 

Jackie

 

Jackie, you have the most intriguing ideas for classes. Two out three of my kids and myself would love to take a course like that. With a BS in Journalism :D, you can bet we talk about media control here as well as advertising.

 

I just have a quick minute, but before I forget, you might want to add the very sad article in the current issue of Mother Jones, by Carl Elliot, to your reading list about Big Pharma (assuming you mean pharmaceutical companies). I heard him speak at a bioethics conference, and we struck up an email correspondence afterward. If you can't find the article, I can send you the pdf. But that one story that he tells really opens up a world of ethical questions, and would make a great starting point for discussion about marketing as the impetus for "scientific" research, and the moral ramifications of that.

 

Great idea for a course.

 

Do you know of resources concerning water issues in Palestine, by the way?

 

May I have the pdf, please. Darn! It seems like I am always asking you for stuff. Can't I send you something, like a 4'8' Imp with hair that stands on end? You should see his new passport picture.:001_huh:

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Some browsing on Amazon has turned up these non-food oriented titles that look like they might be fun to dip into:

 

Jewels: A Secret History by Victoria Finlay

 

Pearls: A Natural History by Neil Landman and others

 

7000 Years of Jewelry: An International History and Illustrated Survey from the Collections of the British Museum edited by Hugh Tait

 

Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay

 

Diamonds Famous & Fatal: The History, Mystery and Lore of the World's Most Famous Gem by Leo Kendall

 

Regards,

Kareni

These look great, I've added them to my wishlist, thank you!

 

 

Jackie (who gets panic attacks thinking about what would happen if all my "saved for later" cart items and Amazon wishlists suddenly disappeared into cyberspace... :willy_nilly: )

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Do you know of resources concerning water issues in Palestine, by the way?

Water, Power and Politics in the Middle East: The Other Israel-Palestine Conflict looks good but it's too expensive to buy — maybe you can get it through ILL?

 

I would love to have a copy of the Carl Elliot pdf, if you have the time to send it. I actually used to subscribe to Mother Jones, but my subscription ran out a few months ago.

 

Jackie

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May I have the pdf, please. Darn! It seems like I am always asking you for stuff. Can't I send you something, like a 4'8' Imp with hair that stands on end? You should see his new passport picture.:001_huh:

 

I sent you the pdf. That's funny about your Imp. I dreamed the other night that he was at the dinner table with us, pokey hair and all. :D

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Water, Power and Politics in the Middle East: The Other Israel-Palestine Conflict looks good but it's too expensive to buy — maybe you can get it through ILL?

 

I would love to have a copy of the Carl Elliot pdf, if you have the time to send it. I actually used to subscribe to Mother Jones, but my subscription ran out a few months ago.

 

Jackie

 

Yes, I could probably get it through the library at the college where I work. Thanks for that recommendation. We have a speaker coming to town next month, discussing this topic. I have a long while to plan a course like this, but I will go to the lecture and check out that book, too.

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This is not a book, but my dh just found this morning a series of podcasts from the British Museum in partnership with BBC radio -- History of the World in 100 Objects. Those of us who are Bryson fans, or just cultural history nuts, will really love this. They have completed 90 of the episodes and they're all available free at http://www.britishmuseum.org

 

The ad for the program and place to click are right there in the middle of the page.

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I am going to order the book on color. I think it will work well with her art history, but will also appeal to her on a personal level. Her birthday gifts were a new camera and a day spent at our art museum (at her request).

 

Please let us know what she thinks of it!

 

Jackie (who gets panic attacks thinking about what would happen if all my "saved for later" cart items and Amazon wishlists suddenly disappeared into cyberspace... :willy_nilly: )

 

All you'd need to do would be come here. We'd share our lists and your new list would be ENORMOUS.

 

This is not a book, but my dh just found this morning a series of podcasts from the British Museum in partnership with BBC radio -- History of the World in 100 Objects.

 

This sounds intriguing, too. Oh, for a few more hours in the day.

 

And, thanks for your mention yesterday of Bill Bryson's newest book; I'm now on the wait list at my library.

 

Regards,

Kareni

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For anyone who loved Billy Bryson's book At Home as much as I did and is considering using all or part as a history resource: a brilliant complement is Charlotte Moore's Hancox: A House and a Family. Like Bryson's book, this takes the family home as a starting point and focuses mainly on the Victorian and early modern periods; but unlike Bryson, Moore is tracing her own family history, which is astoundingly, almost mind-bogglingly documented through diaries, letters, journals, etc. These are members of the very upper middle classes, with connections to the Darwins, Kipling, Henry James, George Eliot... there are women who championed female equality and women who went insane, men who went on polar expeditions (there's an amazing photo of one of the relatives standing next to Arthur Conan Doyle, who had come aboard the ship just to take a look) and men who abandoned their wives and one man who cared devotedly for the woman I mentioned who was mentally unstable.

 

Moore lives in the house her relatives have owned for generations, and uses some of the furniture, paintings, and books that accumulated in the house over the years. It's absolutely fascinating.

 

The two books would make the greatest base for a cultural -- and inevitably, political -- history course.

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My husband like Salt and The Frozen Water Trade much better than Spice. I don't think he finished Spice. He liked a cod book (not sure it was that one, though). My dad liked the history in yea many glasses book and The Telephone Gambit. Neither are big readers, so if they actually read the book, it is probably pretty readable and pretty fast.

-Nan

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Eyewittness might be a fun accompaniment to these. In case you haven't seen it, it is a three inch thick paperback that has snippets of primary sources starting from way back - diaries, letters, etc. And I would like to put in a plug for the Giovanni Caselli books. I know they are younger, but my teens still like them. They pore over all those little drawings. And don't forget Material World and Women in the Material World.

-Nan

Edited by Nan in Mass
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Eyewittness might be a fun accompaniment to these. In case you haven't seen it, it is a three inch thick paperback that has snippets of primary sources starting from way back - diaries, letters, etc.

Nan, is this the book, Eyewitness to History, you're referring to? I was just the "Look Inside" feature to read Xenophon's account of his retreat following the defeat of Cyrus, with men going snow-blind and their toes freezing and falling off! It looks terrific, I just ordered it.

 

Jackie

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The Human Web: A Bird's Eye View of World History

 

Amazon delivered this book a couple of days ago, and I just wanted to say how much I LOVE it. It's a (roughly) 300-page summary of human history from prehistory to the present that focuses specifically on patterns and connections — the "webs" and the "whys" of history — rather than on the minutiae of names/dates/battles. It covers history chronologically rather than geographically, but because it focuses on both the common characteristics and the differences among cultures that existed simultaneously, rather than trying to trace developments separately within each cultural/geographic region, it doesn't have the usual choppiness that bugs me so much in history texts that do a chapter on Egypt followed by a chapter on the Indus Valley, then one on China, etc. The writing is clear and concise, and the "webs" they weave between different components within a culture (e.g. economics, geography, and art), as well as the connections and comparisons they make between cultures, provide a perspective that's lacking in most history books (IMO).

 

As an example of linking separate cultural components within a culture, the authors correlate the development of the "polis" in Greece with the efficiency of phalanx fighting, which transferred the concept of heroism and valor in battle from individuals to the polis as a whole, and the requirements of phalanx-based warfare meant that the gap between rich and poor could not become so great that the poor could not afford arms. They note that the structure of Minoan civilization had more in common with Egypt than it did with Mycenean culture, which more closely resembled "the chariot aristocracies of the Hittite and Mitanni empires." Their discussion of the economic & geographic factors underlying Eygpt's unparalleled 3000 yr religious and artistic stabilty is similarly concise yet thought-provoking.

 

 

I also ordered Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud, which takes a very different approach to history. Rather than focusing on the larger patterns and connections, it focuses on the history of ideas, along with the individuals and groups who developed them. It's equally interesting in it's own way, but much longer (roughly 750 pages of text) and more detailed. IMO it's more of a reference book to dip into when covering the period/ideas that are discussed in each chapter, rather than as an overview to read straight through. I'm also finding the format a bit difficult to read — the book is an inch or so wider than The Human Web, and the text is in a single column, which means that the line length is longer than it should be. The ideal line length for text is about 12 words (which is the average in The Human Web), but the average in Ideas is about 15 words, which makes it a bit tedious to read and easier to lose your place. (This is a pet peeve of mine — book designers should know better!)

 

Anyway, I recommend both books, but especially The Human Web, which I think is absolutely brilliant.

 

Jackie

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Anyway, I recommend both books, but especially The Human Web, which I think is absolutely brilliant.

 

Jackie

 

You've got a taker -- ordered it this evening.

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Yes. We have an older edition so I had to check alibris to see if the cover matched, being too lazy to get up and go find it and check the author. Alibris has lots of them listed. Here is a hardcover older version for $6: http://www.alibris.com/booksearch.detail?invid=8672502957&qwork=2220242&qsort=d&page=9

It is a great book. Mine have only read a few selections out of it, due to time constraints and because we focus more on literature than on history, but the few we've read did a great job of bringing history alive. Not that we have that problem, anyway, between reading classics and Latin, but ...

-Nan

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You've got a taker -- ordered it this evening.

Karen, is your daughter interested in dance/music/movement as well as theater? The senior McNeill has another history book on the role of "communal movement" in the history of human culture, Keeping Together in Time: Dance and Drill in Human History, which looks fascinating:

McNeill turns his attention to the role of synchronized movement in human societies, whether in mass political rallies, the muscular bonding of military drills, or dances staged in ballrooms or mosh pits. Such motions, McNeill tells us, are "far older than language, and critically important in human history." Ranging from the Paleolithic to modern times, McNeill turns up unusual nuggets from the past: the Christian Church's abandonment of sacred dances in the 4th century, dances that survive now in the sign of the cross; and Adolf Hitler borrowing fight songs from American universities to solidify the nascent National Socialist movement.

..........

Every now and then, a slender, graceful, unassuming little volume modestly proposes a radical rethinking of human history. Such a book is Keeping Together in Time...Important, witty, and thoroughly approachable, [it] could, perhaps, only be written by a scholar in retirement with a lifetime's interdisciplinary reading to ponder, the imagination to conceive unanswerable questions, and the courage, in this age of over-speculation, to speculate in areas where certainty is impossible.

.........

[This book is] nothing less than a survey of the historical impact of shared rhythmic motion from the paleolithic to the present, an impact that [McNeill] finds surprisingly significant...

.........

[A] wide-ranging and thought-provoking book...A mind-stretching exploration of the thesis that `keeping together in time'--army drill, village dances, and the like--consolidates group solidarity by making us feel good about ourselves and the group and thus was critical for social cohesion and group survival in the past.

 

Jackie

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Karen, is your daughter interested in dance/music/movement as well as theater? The senior McNeill has another history book on the role of "communal movement" in the history of human culture, Keeping Together in Time: Dance and Drill in Human History, which looks fascinating:

 

 

Jackie

 

Thanks for another one (I think). We just saw Burn the Floor this past week and it was mind-bogglingly fantastic.

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