Books on the how and why of history

[frogger]

Although, I am going to do an overview of world history I really want to dig in more on the why of studying history and the how because I hope my kids will study history their whole lives but with way more depth of perspective than such and such happened on this day. It is highly unlikely that the next two children will take more than general history courses in college and one has dyslexia, though he can read but things need to not be a complete slog for now. It is more important to me to grow critical thinkers than to memorize facts or predigested narratives.

My last two children could handle college books (which made things easier) but right now I'm looking for 6-9th grade reading level or more advanced video/audio resources on source documents, historical criticism, history as propaganda, difficulties with narrative history and such. Sorry this is off the top of my head I might think of more.

 

College level reading is acceptable if very short (like an article, pamphlet, or just very short book) as it is more difficult to study and we would have to read aloud/ break things down and I do want things to be doable and interesting or I will lose my more active learner. Easier reading that actually covers these topics that would actually be interesting would be awesome.

 

 

Edited April 12, 2021 by frogger

[Farrar]

I find that the best way to do this is to pick something with connections and use it. As in, I think that talking about why study history is boring. But looking at a detailed example of that and actually drawing those connections to today is good.

One book I've read with students (that seems freakishly relevant now more than ever) is The Ghost Map. Reading level is a bit higher, but not much and you could do it on audiobook. It's a history of the cholera outbreak in London in the 1800's and how it was solved. It goes into the history of the specifics and the people involved with good detail. But then it keeps drawing back to look at all the things that brought people there - the growth of cities and the industrial revolution and the changes in scientific inquiry... and all the repercussions of understanding disease - what cities will be in the future, what diseases and pandemics will be like (well, I guess we know the answer to that to some extent). So then it's like, oh, this is WHY we study history. So we can make those connections.

The kids and I just finished Sarah Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates, which does this for the Puritans - what they have to do with our conceptions of ourselves as Americans and what ideas they really gave us - as in, not uptight attitudes about sex. But her take is pretty irreverent and not everyone would agree with it. But there are other books like this. Basically, I would say pick a topic to really go into depth with and ask those questions about.

Edited April 12, 2021 by Farrar