Spine for 20th Century History course for 9th grader

[Alice]

I've read through the many (helpful) threads about 20th Century high school history options. I plan on doing some Great Courses, documentaries and other books but I'd like to have a textbook or other overview kind of book as a spine. 

 

This is for a 9th grader who is a very strong reader and who enjoys history but who probably is more of a math/science kid than a humanities kid. He loves to read and finds history interesting but isn't much of a writer. 

 

I've narrowed down my choices to: 

 

A Concise History of the Twentieth Century by Martin Gilbert

 

Modern Times by Paul Johnson 
 

The History of the Modern Wold by Terry Burrows 

 

Any thoughts on any of the above? Hated them? Liked them? 

 

Thanks! 

 

[Pen]

The Martin Gilbert one.  Note:  I have not read that one, but in general think that Gilbert is a treasure!

[katilac]

Are you planning on using Utopia and Terror in the 20th Century from The Great Courses? We loved it! 

 

I can't help with actual question, sorry, I just had to fangirl Professor Liulevicius for a moment.  

[Alice]

Thanks!

 

I have the Utopia Great Couse on my list of ones to consider. I was going to let Ds help choose which ones he was inteeested in. Thanks for the input!

[Harriet Vane]

I've read through the many (helpful) threads about 20th Century high school history options. I plan on doing some Great Courses, documentaries and other books but I'd like to have a textbook or other overview kind of book as a spine. 

 

This is for a 9th grader who is a very strong reader and who enjoys history but who probably is more of a math/science kid than a humanities kid. He loves to read and finds history interesting but isn't much of a writer. 

 

I've narrowed down my choices to: 

 

A Concise History of the Twentieth Century by Martin Gilbert

 

Modern Times by Paul Johnson 

 

The History of the Modern Wold by Terry Burrows 

 

Any thoughts on any of the above? Hated them? Liked them? 

 

Thanks! 

 

 

I really, really hate the Paul Johnson book for teens. While he is an engaging writer and great at evaluation, he assumes the reader has a ton of background historical information that most teens simply do not have. In other words, his book is heavy on interpretation and unacceptably light on presenting what happened, who did it, and why. So I might recommend his book now for my college girl, who is a social studies ed major and has done a ton of study of the events of world history. I chose not to use Johnson's book for her as a sophomore in high school--even though she had always had a history (and lit) intensive education. 

 

We used Palmer, Colton, and Kramer's world history text. Parts of it were difficult to read (one of the three authors is not as good a writer as the other two), but much of it is quite readable. It is nothing if not thorough--frankly, there is too much information for one year, but a careful selection of chapters will do the trick nicely. (My daughter achieved a high score on AP World History after our study with this text).

[Alice]

Thanks HarrietVane! Very helpful.

[Alicia64]

:lurk5: