Ditching SOTW4

[Rivka]

We just gave up and admitted all around that no one is enjoying SOTW4. It seems dry and disjointed, and it's just one war and political takeover after another. Plus, Alex is nervous about World War II coming up. In a novel, she hit a brief description of the Holocaust that was more than she was ready to know about. She's an extremely sensitive kid.

 

I was looking forward to doing the Progressive Era, the Dust Bowl/Great Depression, and the Civil Rights movement, and DH was very excited about studying WWII, but I'm also feeling like if we were going to cover those things the way we'd like to see them covered we would need to put the resources together ourselves... and I just don't have the time. Plus, if the kid tells us she's not ready for Hitler, she's not ready for Hitler... or Stalin, or trench warfare in WWI, and on and on.

 

Is anyone going to come around and take our homeschooling license away if we stop now and go back to Ancients? Everyone is excited about that idea. Colin will start SOTW 1 using Build Your Library and Alex will do a combination of K12 Human Odyssey and Story of Science.

[RootAnn]

No one is going to even question you on that.  

 

There are quite a few of us who skipped SOTW4 for something else. (We did a year of US history instead.)

Best thing about homeschooling is being able to do what's best for your family.

[KrissiK]

We never did it, either. We took that 4th year and did some more US history and then a semester of a California history.

[Dmmetler]

We stopped at reconstruction the first trip through SOTW  and then again in US history. This year DD is doing history as part of an online course, and with a group of other kids who are also equally horrified and upset by the same stuff that bothered her, is making it through. I'm planning British history next, which lets us run back to the time periods she truly enjoys more, but from a different world view.

 

 

[Tawlas]

Yeah, from leafing through SOTW4 I can already tell it's not for me. My son might love it but he can do it on his own later if tha's the case. We're doing SOTW3 with lots of integrated Canadian history over a year and a half and approaching modern history from a provincial angle in that last half year. We live in British Columbia so our history is mostly very recent so it works out really well, chronologically speaking. I'm just in the process of figuring it all out but I'm way more excited about this plan than SOTW4 ;)

[Deee]

We are doing our first proper round of modern history now, DS is 14.

D

[OneStepAtATime]

I am also really curious what resource for that era might be more in depth....

[ScoutTN]

We skipped it too. Winding and wandering our way through VP 1815-present. More American and western focused, but I add in library books to balance. We will go back to Ancients in the fall and are excited about that!

[Hunter]

Dialectica, if you can get a used copy of the ORIGINAL What Your Grader Needs to Know grade 6, there is a LOT of modern history in it. What is covered in that book is NOT typical 6th grade fare. The original series was not all that developmentally appropiate or linked up to what American public schools were teaching. It was basically all that an ADULT needed to know, divided up into 6 levels by difficulty and chronologically and with an attempt to provide some integration. Most, but not all of modern history is in book 6.

 

It's not that different from SOTW4.

[Farrar]

We did make it through modern history, but I thought I'd end up using lots of parts of SOTW4 since there are so few other overarching resources and instead I think we read like three chapters. It is dry and disjointed. There's zero sense of flow with it. And this for the time period that most if know best and know the "flow" of best.

 

I found it worth it to do it DIY but I get that you don't have time. If you wanted to, you could have her read historical fiction from this era while you go back to the ancients. Low maintenance but that way you feel like she got a taste? There's so much less for the ancients anyway. Or just ditch it. You knew we'd give you permission. :)

[Chrysalis Academy]

Absolutely.  We ended up ditching SOTW 4, for the most part, we did pick and choose a few chapters from it. We did a homemade Modern study.  But, like Farar said, if you don't have time to pull that together, it's totally legit to start over with ancients again.  The most important thing is that she isn't ready for it.  So wait! All that history will still be here when she is ready.

[Junie]

My ds age 14 and I have been doing a 20th Century America course this year.  We are using this: 

 

http://www.amazon.com/20th-Century-Mary-Ellen-Sterling/dp/1576901009/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1428761247&sr=8-2&keywords=twentieth+century+teacher+created

 

as the main text and supplementing with A LOT of library books.  The text adequately covers the main events and people that should be studied in this time period, but is not written on a high school level.  Basically, one event/person is covered per page of the text.  We are using it as a springboard to know what to study.  And, because of the way it is written, it is very easy to skip over events that your child is not ready for.

 

hth,

Junie

 

 

 

 

[FO4UR]

We are doing SOTW4, and just did the chapter on the Holocaust.  SWB does a good job of being truthful, yet not gory. It isn't fun and sweet, but it's appropriate.

 

 

That said, my dc are older and we aren't diving into documentaries and such like normal.  (Just...no....)  The Sound of Music (and the biography) makes a good, gentle peek into the era.

 

 

There is no shame in leaving WWII details to older kids!

[jaderbee]

I wonder if instead of focusing on the battles of WWII you could focus on efforts on the home front? Explore how our culture, economy and cuisine changed. The movies, radio dramas, rationing recipes etc. would be fun to explore. 

[fourisenough]

We are doing SOTW4, and just did the chapter on the Holocaust. SWB does a good job of being truthful, yet not gory. It isn't fun and sweet, but it's appropriate.

 

 

That said, my dc are older and we aren't diving into documentaries and such like normal. (Just...no....) The Sound of Music (and the biography) makes a good, gentle peek into the era.

 

 

There is no shame in leaving WWII details to older kids!

I'm with 4blessingmom. We're moving quickly through SOTW 4 and trying to hit on the tough stuff in a light/age appropriate way; think Sound of Music. But I can definitely see the merit in skipping over this era/volume.

[Farrar]

I do think that for anyone doing this period with fourth or fifth graders, that the best thing might be to let historical fiction be the entry point and focus over a text. Historical fiction gets sort of a bum rap on this board occasionally, but I have found it worthwhile for this first pass of history - it's not like we're reading many primary source documents anyway. There's plenty of more gentle books for WWII like The Winged Watchman. And tons of great stuff for the 60's like The Watsons Go to Birmingham. Of course, there are still meaty issues in there and some kids don't feel ready for meaty issues that were in living memory or just outside it.

[mommymonster]

We are coming up on SOTW 4 next year, and I'm trying to decide if we will do it at all. My older son is very into military history, but I think I'm going to pick and choose parts of SOTW4 and instead focus on inventions and inventors (integrated physics and history). At least that is my current plan. DS5, who tags along with DS9 for everything is in no way ready to hear about either WW1 or WW2. I may have DS9 listen to SOTW4 during his free time, just because he loves it so very much.

[go_go_gadget]

I think it can be done in an age-appropriate way, and so far, SOTW4 is age-appropriate IMO. Unless you have a kid who can't read or lives in an actual bubble, then they know a bit about what's going on the world at the moment. I dug this out of my ''Things My Kids Said'' file, from my DS-then-8: ''You know, I read that somewhere-Israel, I think--there's a civil war going on and lots and lots of civilians are dying in the battles. I don't really like knowing that stuff, because I like thinking of the world as a nice place. But then I kind of think I should keep reading about the news, because if I don't know what's going on I can never help.'' Without knowing the general ideas behind and the ramifications of the world wars, they have no context for processing whatever current events they pick up on. 

 

It doesn't have to be SOTW, of course, but I do think it should be something.

[rebbyribs]

I wonder if instead of focusing on the battles of WWII you could focus on efforts on the home front? Explore how our culture, economy and cuisine changed. The movies, radio dramas, rationing recipes etc. would be fun to explore. 

 

Watching The 1940s House would go along well with this focus.  It's about the British home front, so it's a little more intense than the U.S.

[Rivka]

I do think that for anyone doing this period with fourth or fifth graders, that the best thing might be to let historical fiction be the entry point and focus over a text. Historical fiction gets sort of a bum rap on this board occasionally, but I have found it worthwhile for this first pass of history - it's not like we're reading many primary source documents anyway. There's plenty of more gentle books for WWII like The Winged Watchman. And tons of great stuff for the 60's like The Watsons Go to Birmingham. Of course, there are still meaty issues in there and some kids don't feel ready for meaty issues that were in living memory or just outside it.

 

She read Watsons Go To Birmingham this year and really enjoyed it. Funnily enough, she also completely devoured Number the Stars. My mistake was giving her The Upstairs Room when she finished that one. There's a brief couple of lines in that one about gas chambers and ovens, and she was completely devastated.

 

Winged Watchman looks really good, maybe as a family read-aloud. I am also thinking of assigning Ellen Klages' Green Glass Sea, which is about the Manhattan Project.

[kateingr]

My family is loving "stories of America" from Simply Charlotte Mason. It has a gentle tone and not too much detail about the more difficult subjects. For us, it has been a great middle ground between vintage texts that aren't too accurate and modern texts that are very accurate but don't always tell a good story or. Include more detail than I feel my kids need at this point. I'm traveling right now, so I can't check how it handles WWII, but the online table of contents looks like it focuses on the home front and a few key battles. There is also "stories of the Nations" which addresses WWII (and modern history) from a more global perspective.

[SeaConquest]

I do think that for anyone doing this period with fourth or fifth graders, that the best thing might be to let historical fiction be the entry point and focus over a text. Historical fiction gets sort of a bum rap on this board occasionally, but I have found it worthwhile for this first pass of history - it's not like we're reading many primary source documents anyway. There's plenty of more gentle books for WWII like The Winged Watchman. And tons of great stuff for the 60's like The Watsons Go to Birmingham. Of course, there are still meaty issues in there and some kids don't feel ready for meaty issues that were in living memory or just outside it.

I would love more modern historical fiction recs. I will have a young one for sotw4 as well.

[Farrar]

I would love more modern historical fiction recs. I will have a young one for sotw4 as well.

 

Here's the ones we did... There are a lot more out there, so if you have any particular eras, I may have other suggestions...

 

The Ghost in the Tokkaido Inn (pre-Meiji Japan with hints of change coming in the series)

Look Homeward, Hannalee (Civil War)

The Absolutely True Adventures of Homer P. Figg (Civil War)

Angel on the Square (Russian Revolution - sequels that go through WWII Soviet Union)

War Horse (WWI)

Listening for Lions (WWI, flu epidemic, Africa)

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Depression)

A Year Down Yonder (Depression)

The Winged Watchman (WWII)

Number the Stars (WWII)

Don't You Know There's a War On (WWII)

The Year of Impossible Goodbyes (WWII, Korean War)

Countdown (60's, Cold War)

Watsons Go to Birmingham (Civil Rights)

Revolution (Civil Rights, Freedom Summer)

Red Scarf Girl (China's Cultural Revolution - a memoir, not historical fiction)

Inside Out and Back Again (Vietnam, immigration in US)

 

For some things we relied more on movies. For example, my kids loved Lagaan. Who cares that it was in Hindi. And for other topics we read more nonfiction.

 

ETA: Some of those are gentler than others. But the only one I wished we had waited on was Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. Not so much because it's about the realities of racism in the south in the 30's but because it was just so complex. I think it would have been better in middle school. And the only one the kids objected to was Red Scarf Girl, which one of my boys really liked but the other felt was too sad - I think because it ends on a down note, which is really different from something like, say, The Winged Watchman where you see people starving but ends after the war is over and you know things will be better.

[Loesje22000]

A Faraway Land from Annika Thor.

( WWII, two girls are send to sweden to stay save for WWII in Germany, one integrates the other less. The sequels are for a little bit older)

The Silver Sword?

 

IMO these books have the ww as setting, not as theme.

 

la vita est bella was our first 'real' wwII movie.

[Hunter]

I think it might be impossible to write a comprehensive modern history textbook for young children that is developmentally appropriate. I applaud the efforts of SWB at attempting something so difficult.

 

Historical fiction is sometimes far more traumatic for young children than a dry text.

 

Sometimes, later is better, and some things are better left until high school.

[Farrar]

I think it might be impossible to write a comprehensive modern history textbook for young children that is developmentally appropriate. I applaud the efforts of SWB at attempting something so difficult.

 

Historical fiction is sometimes far more traumatic for young children than a dry text.

 

Sometimes, later is better, and some things are better left until high school.

 

But there's developmentally appropriate and there's individual needs and family philosophies. SOTW4 is, without any doubt in my mind, totally developmentally appropriate. And so is most historical fiction intended for upper elementary. On the other hand, some kids will always be really affected - whether they're 10 or 20 yo. And some will always be more affected by nonfiction and others by fiction.

 

I think there is a trend now to shelter kids from learning about "the bad stuff." And sometimes that's good. I'm glad we do it. And other times I think we need to remember that we can't shelter them and it's better to give a gentle introduction early so they're ready to engage later. Which is not to say that Rivka shouldn't just move on if they're ready or anyone else.

 

On the other hand, everything I've read about some of the "hard" topics of the 20th century like racism and sexism and bigotry says that it's better to explore them with kids when they're young. To be frank that they're out there. I honestly would hate to think that anyone thought about slavery that it was better to do absolutely nothing about it until high school. Or about the Civil Rights movement or the women's movement. Nothing! Those topics, IMO, can't wait that long. By the time kids are 15, they've formed too many of their opinions. I want to get in on forming those opinions and explore those topics with them. That doesn't have to mean we have to show our 10 yos images of Holocaust camps or lynchings or whatever. But I felt like it was important to do some exploration of these topics.

[Minerva]

Thank you Farrar for the book recommendations. So far we have loved every book you have recommended from other threads.

 

I would love some recommendations age appropriate movies for the Modern era if anyone has them.  I have found all of the SOTW books to be jumpy and rely heavily on fiction, biography, Youtube and Netflix. The Modern Era seems to be the hardest so far because of the sheer amount of material to wade through, much of it way too mature for my audience.

[RootAnn]

Rivka - Still ok with you ditching SOTW4, but your thread headed off in another direction, so hope you don't mind if I post this link to a Modern History Reading List thread from 2011 and a blog post from Smooth Stones Academy where she condensed SOTW4  into 21 weeks & added a booklist.

[Barb_]

We switched to k12's Human odyssey for modern history, but I still wouldn't attempt it much below age 10 or so and only as a read aloud. Much explanation will be necessary for that age group. I find the human odyssey to be very well done.

[Farrar]

I personally don't think SOTW4 is developmentally inappropriate, or at least not for my kids. Rather, I think it's trying to cover an awful lot of recent history in the space of one short book, and that means leaving out or simplifying things, which is a shame, though also inevitable. I also believe it's written from a US perspective, which is normal considering that it was written by an American, but I'd like to see a more global perspective.

 

That's interesting. The topics don't feel to me as an American like the perspective is American. It feels to jumpy to have any particular perspective. But I could see that the text might. I'd have to think about that.

 

I think it might be sort of American to start with the Civil War... I continually felt that that didn't belong in SOTW4 and ought to have been the endpiece for SOTW3. In fact, that's how we closed out our US history year, so we did organize it differently. I feel like modern history should start with a focus on imperialism and the lead up to WWI, not with the American Civil War. I guess it could go in either era, but it feels to me like it's a distraction from a greater narrative. And that the narrative of slavery, which goes with it so closely, belongs with the issues explored in the industrial revolution and so forth instead.

[Sahamamama]

Is anyone going to come around and take our homeschooling license away if we stop now and go back to Ancients? Everyone is excited about that idea. Colin will start SOTW 1 using Build Your Library and Alex will do a combination of K12 Human Odyssey and Story of Science.

 

Nope. :) If you're excited about starting over with Ancients, why not just do that? Or maybe take an Around-the-World tour for a few months, then come back to History? It really is up to you, and that's one of the advantages of homeschooling.

[FairProspects]

That's interesting. The topics don't feel to me as an American like the perspective is American. It feels to jumpy to have any particular perspective. But I could see that the text might. I'd have to think about that.

 

I think it might be sort of American to start with the Civil War... I continually felt that that didn't belong in SOTW4 and ought to have been the endpiece for SOTW3. In fact, that's how we closed out our US history year, so we did organize it differently. I feel like modern history should start with a focus on imperialism and the lead up to WWI, not with the American Civil War. I guess it could go in either era, but it feels to me like it's a distraction from a greater narrative. And that the narrative of slavery, which goes with it so closely, belongs with the issues explored in the industrial revolution and so forth instead.

 

I completely agree with this statement.

[HS Mom in NC]

It's all up to you.  You can skip all of it or parts of it.  You can opt out of the narrative and go with picking and choosing from the recommended reading (both fiction and non-fiction) in the Activity Book for SOTW 4. You can look at lists of literature based on era and pick and choose from that. That's the beauty of homeschooling.

In general I wouldn't recommend skipping such a huge chunk of history entirely.  I think there are ways to hit many of the highlights of the Modern Era while still being sensitive to personalities and developmental stages.

 

[EKS]

We left SOTW 3 halfway through for the same reasons and did K12's History 4 instead.  It was excellent.  If you want to wrap up the cycle before moving on to the Human Odyssey books, I'd highly recommend it.

[Barb_]

We left SOTW 3 halfway through for the same reasons and did K12's History 4 instead. It was excellent. If you want to wrap up the cycle before moving on to the Human Odyssey books, I'd highly recommend it.

Lol, this is probably better advice. I really like their History 4 too but forgot it was a thing. This round of kids is taking so long to get through the history cycle that they were middle school aged by the time we got to modern history.

[Tawlas]

I wonder if instead of focusing on the battles of WWII you could focus on efforts on the home front? Explore how our culture, economy and cuisine changed. The movies, radio dramas, rationing recipes etc. would be fun to explore.

That's what I was thinking when I said "provincial angle". How did the war(s) affect families and homes, towns. Dear Canada etc books for historical fiction. Japanese internement. I bit more personal rather than the terrible truths. Especially because I will have younger kids tagging along, this seems more appropriate. I won't lie, but I won't dive into the worst of the gory details.

[cintinative]

Dialectica, if you can get a used copy of the ORIGINAL What Your Grader Needs to Know grade 6, there is a LOT of modern history in it. What is covered in that book is NOT typical 6th grade fare. The original series was not all that developmentally appropiate or linked up to what American public schools were teaching. It was basically all that an ADULT needed to know, divided up into 6 levels by difficulty and chronologically and with an attempt to provide some integration. Most, but not all of modern history is in book 6.

 

It's not that different from SOTW4.

 

Hunter, remind me what the cover looks like on those. Is it the speckled one?

[Hunter]

I just wanted to clarify that I did not say that SOTW4 was developmentally inappropriate. I was stating the difficulty of writing a COMPREHENSIVE text that was developmentally appropriate. And then also stated that sometimes stories can be even more developmentally inappropriate than a text.

 

I find it less triggering to deal with extreme violence as dry and factually as possible. Turning violence into a story with young characters that children can identify with can sometimes bring things too close to home.

 

There was a horrible war in the late 1930's and early 1940's. It was less than a 10 year period. I don't know that I need to cover that short 10 year period in DEPTH and focus on the most VIOLENT events with young children.

 

I don't know that I need to cover modern times in far more depth than earlier times. Why do I need to do that? Just because there is more stuff AVAILABLE? So? There are more tinned and packaged foods in the grocery store than fresh, but does that mean I need to buy more tinned and packaged than fresh? I think not.

 

Are modern times more important? That is chronological snobbery, in my opinion.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronological_snobbery

 

I'm no longer a Christian, but when I was, I pretty much equally divided the 4,000 years of Abraham to the present equally. I'm still kinda stuck in that timeline even if the content chosen and worldview is a bit different, now. And I also teach social studies, not just history, so need to find equal time for geography, civics, and economics. There just isn't time to go hog wild with the 20th century, and cover everything else, too.

 

  :001_tt2: to 1/4 of an education on 150 years of history. I don't know of a better text than SOTW4 if looking for a text that covers that period of history written to a child audience. I don't have a problem with the text at all, and am thankful it is available to the homeschooling community. I just don't see the necessity of COMPREHENSIVE 20th century history for little ones. If I was committed to neoclassical and wanted to stay on rotation with a family–there are perks to doing that–I'd do more geography that year with the little ones.

 

 

Hunter, remind me what the cover looks like on those. Is it the speckled one?

 

Yes, it's the sponge painted ones with trees. The revised edition has children on the covers. The new revised and updated edition has children's artwork on the covers.

 

 

[Pen]

We used it and liked it. But ds does not tend to be particularly sensitive to non-fiction.

 

We used the Jim Weiss audio version, so ds was able to listen multiple times.

[AngelBee]

Either way will work great! No stress. We used TOG for year 4, which does a great job with lower ages. SOTW is for the older ones using TOG. (It's an alternative text option)

[GrammarGirl]

Find a different text or censor SOTW4. Don't skip modern. Yes, there's a lot of human depravity evident in modern history, but you would also be skipping a lot of triumphs and marvels that can be very inspiring.

[kiwik]

Very good question.

 

lol

 

Not there yet, haven't thought about it, will think about it at some point.

NCERT? I can't get it to load but it does have history listed at the higher levels.

[Deee]

DS14 read about the Holocaust when he was 9 or 10. I bought the box set of Horrible Histories books. I left him reading about the Tudors after dinner. At 9.30 he came out ashen-faced, having chewed his way through to WWII. It was a salutary lesson for all of us: you can read too much, especially after you have been told to turn off the light! That was our unintentional round one of modern history. Now we're hitting it properly this year, with History Odyssey as the main guide, but with extra time given to WWI and WWII, and more Australian history. It will take us 18 months. We'll use a lot of historical fiction, the History Alive series by Peter Moss (UK, 1980's, very well written), KFHE, van Loon, Jackie French (DS has already read these in another week-long binge), and some primary source stuff. This will probably be our only go at modern history- DS is a STEM kid.

[AdventuresinHomeschooling]

Hmmm...I have a first and 4th grader next year, and we are slotted to do SOTW 4.  I had already planned on supplementing a lot and doing some state history.  I also knew it would be too heavy for my first grader, so I am planning to do more US history/state history and global cultures with him.  Thanks for the warnings.  I may veer off into more state history than planned.

 

I am looking forward to certain films on certain subjects for this time period such as The Grapes of Wrath, Father Goose and others.  I also think it is important to discuss the Holocaust and Civil Rights in appropriate ways as well as some of the major inventions and accomplishments of the past century.  Perhaps I will look at TOG and Sonlight for some literature supplements and truly use SOTW as more of a spine.

 

Do you all feel the activity guide for 4 is a good resource?  We have always used it before for extra literature suggestions, map work and projects.  Is it still worth it or could I get away with just the book as my spine and put my own stuff together?

 

 

[eternalsummer]

Oh my gosh. I just decided to quit SOTW4 with ds, and was feeling horribly guilty about it. So you're doing me a favour if you stop :)

 

We are also going back to Ancient Greece for 'real' history and - shh - don't tell anyone - studying WW1 through gaming using Valiant Hearts.

 

must hear more about this valiant hearts thing

 

We ditched SOTW after the first one! :)  I just prefer immersive history to the more event event event type.

[eternalsummer]

I don't really know, honestly, that modern history is all that much worse in terms of horror about violence, etc. than earlier times (though I am certainly willing to hear arguments for that perspective if you have them).

 

The scale is worse (but so is the scale of achievement/advancement/grandeur)

 

But burning people at the stake, sacrificing people to gods, the constant waves of wars and slavery in the ancient world, the waves of bloody conquest in England, the struggle of the pioneers and native americans, etc. - all of that is frightening and difficult to process, imo.

[Bluegoat]

I don't really know, honestly, that modern history is all that much worse in terms of horror about violence, etc. than earlier times (though I am certainly willing to hear arguments for that perspective if you have them).

 

The scale is worse (but so is the scale of achievement/advancement/grandeur)

 

But burning people at the stake, sacrificing people to gods, the constant waves of wars and slavery in the ancient world, the waves of bloody conquest in England, the struggle of the pioneers and native americans, etc. - all of that is frightening and difficult to process, imo.

 

This was my thought.  The horrors of war in the ancient world were actually pretty horrible.  But we don't tend to dwell too much on those details with kids, and we don't have pictures.  And I think we in a way accept attitudes in people from long ago that we look at differently now.  THis weekend I was talking with my Sunday school class a bit about the Huron mission, and the near destruction of the Huron nation by the Iroquios.  We didn't get into many details, because they are absolutly too horrific, but one of the things I noticed in the literature I was using was that none of them used anything like the phrase "attempted genocide" which is what we would have called it today.  The attitude seemed to be rather that it was to be expected that a rivalry of that nature would be expected in those circumstances and would lead to that kind of fighting under the right circumstances.

 

We seem to feel differently about 20th century events.  But perhaps if we presented them in the same way we present other time periods, it would be more appropriate for children.

[Bluegoat]

As for the OP - I would have no qualms about leaving behind SOTW.  I got the first one from the library and we ended up using a different spine because I didn't love it.  But I probably would not skip modern history.  If I was looking for a quick fix, I think I would do as others suggest and read some historical fiction, and I would add some biographies and whatever else looked good at the library.  I would tie it together with a timeline.

[RootAnn]

On the ancient horrors vs. modern horrors, I wonder if part of it is the "us" factor?

 

We recently covered the Trail of Tears in SOTW3. This hit them harder than many previous atrocities -- perhaps because "we" (the US) were the ones who carried it out & perhaps because they can actually picture the geography, people, & situation a lot more than some of the others we've read about in the last several years.

 

Also, there seem to be more 'innocents' undergoing trials vs. war-related-deaths in the later SOTW books. My kids don't have as much empathy for the French soldiers who froze to death in Russia because of Napoleon's choices as they do for the Choctaws due to the Indian Removal Act of 1830.

[Dmmetler]

I think it's definitely a close to home thing. DD's hardest point so far was reconstruction, and I think it has everything to do with living in Memphis, where there is still so much racial tension. She's seen that it hasn't gotten all that much better, and that seems very hopeless. She's actually had an easier time with WWI and WWII than I'd expected-but I think that may be because she was introduced to them first by Doctor Who :). She was very, very angry with the trail of tears and Indian resettlement and genocide. I expect the civil rights movement will be difficult, too.