If you were going to do this for 9th grade history...

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

So, this year my ds (US 9th grade) will finish up a very intense year of modern history.  We have really been taking our time and digging deep.  

His US 9th grade year is the last year of obligatory schooling where we live.  After he finishes, he is going to go to public gymnase, which is like a college-prep US 10-12th grade school.  

During this final year at home, I will be having him do some in-depth Swiss history.  But I would also like to assign some deeper dives into history through well-written history books published for the general public.  Both non-fiction and novel.  There is very little in terms of adult content we will need to avoid at that point, though I don't want overly graphic sex or violence.  

Some of my ideas:

The Silk Roads: A New History of the World (General, Eastern hem.)

Wild Swans (China)

We The Living (Russia)

The Good War (WW2)

Bastard Brigade (WW2)

What I'm missing are books for ancient and middle time periods, and maybe some American books, although we really did go deep into US history this year.  I am looking less for overviews and more for connections- following one thread or idea or region over time, like Silk Roads for example.  Or sharp focus on an engaging topic, like Bastard Brigade above.  I'm looking for really engaging books, which is why I'm hunting for adult popular history books.  This is my kid who really seems to enjoy and soak up history.

While I plan to read the books as well, his history will be almost entirely independent for this particular year.  We have made it our huge focus for the last 1.5 years, and the mom-intense subject next year will be sciences.  

 

 

 

Edited January 17, 2021 by Monica_in_Switzerland

[Lori D.]

Guns, Germs, and Steel (Diamond)
I don't know how engaging it is (no personal experience... sigh, one I keep meaning to get to), but this one gets recommended a lot, and from the table of contents, it covers your ancient and medieval times, and non-Western nations/continents.

Connections (Burke)
I have no idea if his book is as fascinating as his short series of TV shows were, but you might enjoy watching some of these 50-min. long Science-History-connections episodes. There are 3 series: ten episodes (several are multi-part, so 22 total segments) done in 1978; twenty episodes done in 1994; and ten episodes done in 1997. See the Wikipedia article for episode summaries to see which ones might be a fit for your studies. A number of the episodes are available for viewing on YouTube and the Internet Archive.

Salt: A World History (Kurlansky)
I'm currently reading this one, and it definitely covers your ancients and medieval time frames and shows connections through the use of salt. I'm not sure I would call it "engaging" -- more like a series of informational/historical paragraphs strung together.


2 that probably are not a fit for what you're looking for:

The Colditz Story (Reid)
I know you already have WW2 covered, and this is only a tiny slice of that history -- allied POWs in the high end German prison camp -- but I remember reading this one when I was about 13yo and found it absolutely fascinating, seeing how creative these men were in making supplies and coming up with prison escape plans. And as a side element, seeing the effect long term imprisonment has on people.

Kon Tiki (Heyersdahl)
Interesting look at what sailing for the ancient Polynesian raft sailors might have been like. Told in first person from the man who headed the project, in the 1940s, six Norweigan men recreated a log raft on the South American shores and launched it to cross the Pacific and land on a South Pacific island.

Edited January 17, 2021 by Lori D.

[goldenecho]

How the Irish Saved Civilization is an amazing read.   It's not Irish propaganda, in spite of the title...it really gets into their roll in preserving the knowledge during the middle ages (and gave me a better understanding of the middle ages in general) and I loved reading it.   

 

Edited January 17, 2021 by goldenecho

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

15 hours ago, goldenecho said:

How the Irish Saved Civilization is an amazing read.   It's not Irish propaganda, in spite of the title...it really gets into their roll in preserving the knowledge during the middle ages (and gave me a better understanding of the middle ages in general) and I loved reading it.   

 

This is exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for, thanks!  

[goldenecho]

Reread your original post, where you said...

 

Quote

 There is very little in terms of adult content we will need to avoid at that point, though I don't want overly graphic sex or violence.  

So, some of the discussions of Irish Myths before the introduction of Christianity did have some sexual content and I can't remember how explicit it was.   You might want to preview that section.   Sorry, I had just remembered that.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

8 hours ago, goldenecho said:

Reread your original post, where you said...

 

So, some of the discussions of Irish Myths before the introduction of Christianity did have some sexual content and I can't remember how explicit it was.   You might want to preview that section.   Sorry, I had just remembered that.

I will preview it, but it's probably fine.  He's read Norse Myths by Gaiman, which had some sexual content as well.  

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

35 minutes ago, Plum said:

Love this idea. All ears. 

 

There are quite a few books that meet my criteria, but are science-specific rather than history specific, like the following.  But many of them would do as crossovers between history and science as well.  

  

The Perfectionists

Napoleon's Buttons

The Disappearing Spoon

Stuff Matters

The Violinist's Thumb

 

 

[ElizabethB]

Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069 

William Strauss and Neil Howe posit the history of America as a succession of generational biographies, beginning in 1584 and encompassing every-one through the children of today. Their bold theory is that each generation belongs to one of four types, and that these types repeat sequentially in a fixed pattern. The vision of Generations allows us to plot a recurring cycle in American history -- a cycle of spiritual awakenings and secular crises -- from the founding colonists through the present day and well into this millenium.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0688119123/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Albion's Seed

This fascinating book is the first volume in a projected cultural history of the United States, from the earliest English settlements to our own time. It is a history of American folkways as they have changed through time, and it argues a thesis about the importance for the United States of having been British in its cultural origins.

While most people in the United States today have no British ancestors, they have assimilated regional cultures which were created by British colonists, even while preserving ethnic identities at the same time. In this sense, nearly all Americans are "Albion's Seed," no matter what their ethnicity may be. The concluding section of this remarkable book explores the ways that regional cultures have continued to dominate national politics from 1789 to 1988, and still help to shape attitudes toward education, government, gender, and violence, on which differences between American regions are greater than between European nations.

https://www.amazon.com/Albions-Seed-British-Folkways-cultural/dp/0195069056/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1ULNXPSHY5TFE&dchild=1&keywords=albions+seed&qid=1611184495&s=books&sprefix=albion%2Cstripbooks%2C218&sr=1-1

If you have to pick one, I'd go with Albion's Seed, it is basically influences of different European areas to US history.