About book The Middle Ages: From The Fall Of Rome To The Rise Of The Renaissance (2007)
The Story of the World – History for the Classical Child- Volume 2- The Middle Ages by Susan Wise BauerEven if this is a book destined for a very different segment of the population, I must confess that not only I loved it, but I found things I did not know. For instance-The Mongols drew blood from their horses to avoid starvationKublai Khan became emperor and he attacked Japan, but two storms saved the Japanese from a possible Mongol invasion. They called these storms the Kamikaze, hence the name in World War II for the pilots…winds from above.Marco Polo travelled with his father to China, during the rule of Kublai Khan. After his death, there were some leaders who imposed an embargo on trading. They would execute whoever built ships.When they came back, Marco Polo and his father were in rags. Their relatives said they were beggars and impostors, but Marco and father opened the rags to produce gems and precious stones.There are interesting passages on the Jewish Diaspora, rabbis and synagogues…The wise rabbi of Seville saved his people from expulsion with three questions and answers: how many stars in the sky- one million fifty three, the difference between a lie and the truth – a palm wide between ears and eyes and finally eating the paper with the forced evacuationIslam-tIn fact, we learn that Islam had a lot of inspiration from Judaism and Christianity. -tThis is evident in the fact that both Jesus and Moses are prophets accepted by the -tMoslems, albeit they are held in much lower esteem than Mohamed- the OneWe learn some stories about the crusades and Richard the Lion Heart, who was captured and jailed on the way back, only to be liberated and killed in a silly incident in France.Ivan the Great and Ivan the Terrible appear in the telling of history for the use of the children, and adults? Look at this reader who was fascinated by the amusing telling of historical facts, adapted so that truth would not be falsified, but just made more interesting and palatable for a younger audience The siege of Constantinople has some intriguing events- with the ships that appeared to sail on land, only because they were pulled by thousands of animals. The eclipse played a psychological role.The cruelty of various rulers is not hushed up, just to make it all pleasant for children. When the emperor sent messengers to the Turkish sultan, they have all been beheaded.The greatest sultan was Suleiman the Magnificent, ruling over the greatest empire of that time. His name came from …the Jewish hero Solomon. Suleiman is the name of a controversial series that provoked the ire of Turkish rulers, who act somewhat like sultans. Supposedly, the sultan was a saintly figure, who would not indulge in the life depicted on screen- womanizing, hedonistic pleasures could not have been in the habit of the great ruler. Or so they claim, in some of the Turkish ruling circles, some of which have been involved in huge corruption scandals…Nothing new under the sun?The Chinese history is introduced, with their different customs: gold is the imperial color. The emperor lives in huge buildings which are only for his own personal use. Joan of Arc is introduced, with the history of her heroism and special skills. When she came to meet the king, they had another man dressed as the royal ruler, with the crown on his head. But Joan went straight passed him to kneel in front of the real king. This was considered a proof of the special powers Joan had, although priests were brought in to test and see if the maid is not a witch after all. She died burned at the stake and the king of France did nothing to try to help her.The extraordinary story of Mali. This wretched state is in a state of civil war and France intervened to try to save lives, in the recent months. But Mali had a period of glory, when it became a rich empire, by taxing the trade between its north, which was rich in salt and the South that had gold. The ruler of Mali made a pilgrimage to Mecca and gave so much gold along the way that the price of gold plummeted.Great entertainment
I'm noticing that the closer we get to modern times, the more there is to argue about in the historical record. I assure you, I didn't agree with all of Susan Wise Bauer's presentation of the Middle Ages, but the only way to be perfectly satisfied would be to write a history myself and I don't have the time for that. Besides, I'm sure there are parts of it that frustrate Susan herself. Such is the nature of flawed humanity's attempts to document our past and - even more controversial - teach it to our children.Some examples: Why are rulers and conquerors of ancient empires seldom censured while the Spanish conquering of new world is looked up so negatively. I don't think Alexander the Great offered peace treaties to everyone he encountered before battle, and neither did Julius Ceaser (who once sold thousands of captives from battle into slavery). Catholics and Protestants alike will surely find something to dislike in Bauer's presentation of the Reformation, and the introduction of Islam is sure to be controversial in today's age.Even with these flaws, this is an excellent program and I can see why most home school programs use Story of the World in some way, shape or form. We continue to listen to these on audio in the car, supplementing with images and stories as we have time (sometimes I intentionally look for something to provide balance where I feel Bauer is not quite where i'd have been). We have enjoyed many discussions about characters, cultures and history, including the parts of the presentation that make Mommy or Daddy uncomfortable. Students develop interest in favorite stories and characters. This is an outstanding resource for our preschool exposure to the story of the world. We will happily use it again for elementary education. As for the audio production, Jim Weise does an excellent job with the narration. True, there are a few tracks that seemed a bit rushed, but these are isolated incidences that can be explained by differences of creative preference. Overall, highly recommended. On to Early Modern Times!!!!-----Additional thoughts:There is a quote, often attributed to Winston Churchill (though I'm not sure it originated with him), "History is written by the victors." What is interesting to me about the current state of education in Western Civilization is that the victors (those of the West) have initiated a systematic mea culpa in Western Civics instruction. This is strange, and seems unprecedented that a culture would censure itself to this degree. I agree we need to look at our history critically, but I don't agree with the tearing down of the foundations of our culture as a form of repentance or even reconciliation.This trend also emerges in "Early Modern Times" where we are given a graphic story about a young South American boy working in a Spanish mine. The impression is the problem of slavery emerged with the Spanish in the Americas. However, the problem of slavery was indeed present long before Spain entered the Americas (though no one will deny the discovery of the new world gave the practice a new open market). In fact, I am currently reading a book called "Slavery: A World History" that describes the conditions of ROMAN mines in SPAIN and documents how Rome, the greatest civilization our planet has ever known (at least in terms of longevity) maintained the largest slave market in the world. Yet slavery in Rome was never mentioned as a concern.
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We stumbled across this as I searched for audio children's books that I could obtain through interlibrary loan. I was doubtful at first as we started to listen to it but eventually the tales grew on both Rory and me. We loved it in the end and have continued to work our way through the series. For me, I'm hearing history that I know wisps of as well as learning new things (I wish I could think of some examples at this moment!) Rory is fascinated (of course, lots of battles are chronicled.) But there's extensive information about the development of cultures around the world, and the text includes lots of little details that appeal to children. It's very well done.
—Patricia
I really enjoyed this book. It captivated my 9 year old as well. My 6 year old got bored with it. In the beginning it seemed as though there was so much information that it was difficult to keep track of everything. However, by the end, we were wishing that it had gone more in depth into some areas. However, it has opened up new areas for us to study. The book touched on many areas of the world during this time period. I think that we will need to do the book over again in order to remember all of the information.Overall, I think this is a great book. I think it would do well for children studying the middle ages, especially if used with other study materials. However, we didn't use the workbook/study guide with this. Maybe if we had done that as well, we would have gotten more information. Even as an adult reading this book, I learned a lot and really enjoyed it. I think almost all ages could enjoy this. Some things my son found somewhat sad. And as with my daughter, very young children may lose interest.
—Marlee
Emphasis on the story part of history. The accompanying teacher guide provides maps and activity ideas. There's a lot of repetition of activity themes: weapons (Celtic battle axes, Samurai swords, etc), costumes, medallions. As our history co-op has continued through the chapters, we have begun to come up with our own activities. Perhaps the favorite of these is "History by Mouth" and visits to a New York style deli (for the Jewish diaspora), Korean barbecue (for the Mongolian invasion of the East), and making Mayan hot chocolate (empires of the Americas).
—Louisa
