Yabusame Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 Hi all, My girlfriend is giving me a book voucher for Valentine's Day and I'd like to use it towards a good history book. I know that some people here recommend Spielvogel as their 'spine' in teaching history, but I believe it only contains a small number of chapters on the ancient world. Can anyone recommend a good book for the study of history beginning with the ancient world? Is Spielvogel worth the money? What other authors/books would you recommend? I already own the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, which gives a one page spread on each civilisation/period, but I want something with a little more meat on it. I think I could use the Kingfisher as a brief introduction to different periods, but where do I go from there? Thanks in advance for any recommendations, Yabusame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharon in MD Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 It does only have a few chapters on each period, but it is a wonderful Western Civ history text. We really like it, even ds who isn't a history fan at all. What we did to beef up the sections we are studying is add the Teaching Co. lectures on those periods. It has truly blended together very well. We did a one semester Ancients course and are now doing a one semester Ren/Ref period course. For the Ancients we added TTC's The Origins of Ancient Civilizations (Harl) 12 lectures; Ancient Greek Civilization (McInerney); and History of Ancient Rome (Fagan). We liked all of them, but thought McInerney was best, Fagan next and Harl third place. This semester we are using Sister Wendy's Story of Painting and TTC's Renaissance, the Reformation and the Rise of Nations (Fix). He is not as dynamic of a speaker....but he is very good in his own way. It is more like sitting down with someone who loves the subject and can conversationally teach you about it. HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharon in MD Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 They have a great website with loads of extra things that you can access for research on different periods. I was able to get an account with them to access the materials as a home teacher. You won't be able to use the testing materials because you would need institutional access to blackboard, but I just use the written test bank and make up my own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 You might consider a one volume history of the ancient world itself. In that case, I'd recommend The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome by Susan Wise Bauer (the host of this board). Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yabusame Posted February 11, 2009 Author Share Posted February 11, 2009 Kareni & Sharon, Thanks for your replies. I already had SWBs The History of the Ancient World on my list, so I'm glad someone thought it worth adding. Though I did read a couple of reviews on Amazon that stated that it wasn't very academic or adhere to current thinking... I'll get it anyway, history is always just an opinion until more information comes to light. With regards to Spielvogel, I was hoping to buy Western Civilization but there seem to be so many different Spielvogel books on the subject I'm wondering if this is the one you'd recommend. Sharon, is the version I have linked above the version you seem so enthused about? Funny you should mention The Teaching Company, I have looked at their site several times and drooled over the different courses on offer. I may have to buy one or two of your recommendations. I'm wanting to buy Spielvogel because it seems to be recommended a great deal for home-schooling (though I am obviously home-schooling myself). Finally, I'm also considering An Introduction to the Ancient World by Lukas de Blois and RJ van der Spek. This was the text recommended by the Hillsdale Academy in their Humane Letters - History curriculum. Does anyone have any thoughts on the above, or further recommendations? I'm still learning about the ancient world, hence the above list, but I hope to move through the Middle Ages, Renaissance/Reformation, and the Modern World in due course (and I'll probably keep going round the ages just as I know you guys teach your children). I'm trying to mix the reading list of SWBs The Well-Educated Mind with the reading of the Hillsdale Academy curriculum for Humane Letters, both literature and history (I'm still on the summer reading list for the 9th grade, so you can tell I've just started). Thanks everyone, Yabusame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharon in MD Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 (edited) With regards to Spielvogel, I was hoping to buy Western Civilization but there seem to be so many different Spielvogel books on the subject I'm wondering if this is the one you'd recommend. Sharon, is the version I have linked above the version you seem so enthused about? Funny you should mention The Teaching Company, I have looked at their site several times and drooled over the different courses on offer. I may have to buy one or two of your recommendations. I'm wanting to buy Spielvogel because it seems to be recommended a great deal for home-schooling (though I am obviously home-schooling myself). .... The book you have linked is the edition that I have. I am a sucker for the latest editions. Here is a link to the website that I mentioned that has various aids to use with the text. You can access all the student materials without any type of account. But you have to set up an account with them to access the locked tab that has teacher materials. I personally found that to be useful. I was able to down load powerpoint slides, outlines, learning objectives and so forth. I also received a one year teacher's subscription to the Gale/Infotrac database which is convenient (a period literature database which is used in the student infotrac assignments). However, you can also access this and other databases remotely through many public library accounts. http://http://www.wadsworth.com/cgi-wadsworth/course_products_wp.pl?fid=M20b&flag=student&product_isbn_issn=9780495502852&disciplinenumber=21 You can also access similar pages to the one I've link for other editions, but I don't remember how far back it goes. It can be handy to glean from the options on other editions, like the 6th edition site has an interactive timeline feature that the 7th ed site doesn't have. One thing that particularly attracted me to Spielvogel is the scope of the text, from primitive all the way to really recent modern history. I like to be able to have one base/spine that I can use across multiple periods. Also regarding TTC's videos....you may be able to get them from the library or netflix too. HTH Edited February 12, 2009 by Sharon in MD forgot to include link Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathie in VA Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 Another option might be the The Story of the Ancient World by H A Guerber and reprinted by Christine Miller via Nothing New Press. http://www.nothingnewpress.com/guerber/ancient.html This is a narrative though, not a text book. I have the other books in the series, but not this one. They are written very well and all my kids like reading or hearing them. I've heard they are good for the dialectic stage but not sure about the Rhetoric stage (we are just approaching 9th grade next year). There is also Streams of Civilizations. This is a two volume Christian text covering world history. hth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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