Customer Reviews

Around the World in a Hundred Years: From Henry the Navigator to Magellan

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I am trying to make a decision as to whether to use this book or not, for homeschool. The first time around, I was "taken" by the fun and interesting way things were presented, and appreciated the uncomfortable truths that I was not taught in school. When it spoke of "Christians" this, that, and the other - I was not so much bothered because Christians have not been perfect over the centuries. Far from it. As I read my bible, we see that some of the greatest bible heros had huge blights on their lives. But we learn from that. For example, David's affair. But we see that he was held accountable, and we see His turning back to God. We see that men fail, but God is redemptive, and Sovereign. So I am not afraid to look at the failings of Christianity, however, this book goes beyond that. In it I see overstatement, bias,and inaccuracies as a result of that bias.

I took it out of our library to re-read to my children. They were really too young last time, and are at just the right age now. I got on here and began reading some of the reviews, and looking up some of the excerpts in the book. As I began to review these excerpts, I saw them in a different light. Discomfort I can handle when it deals in truth, but this was more. I began to see gross overstatements. When I researched "Christians burning the library at Alexandria," and found that to be totally inaccurate, it cause me to question how well researched this book was. I do not want to read a book to my children and constantly wonder if it is even accurate. It seems to me that the irresponsibility comes in with the author's own bias.

The book needs to be rewritten, facts rechecked beforehand. Jean Fritz is a great writer, which is why I gave it two stars, but I don't trust her research now.

Here is a quote from another source concerning the burning of the library at Alexandria:

"So who did burn the Library of Alexandria? Unfortunately most of the writers from Plutarch (who apparently blamed Caesar) to Edward Gibbons (a staunch atheist or deist who liked very much to blame Christians and blamed Theophilus) to Bishop Gregory (who was particularly anti-Moslem, blamed Omar) all had an axe to grind and consequently must be seen as biased. Probably everyone mentioned above had some hand in destroying some part of the Library's holdings. The collection may have ebbed and flowed as some documents were destroyed and others were added. For instance, Mark Antony was supposed to have given Cleopatra over 200,000 scrolls for the Library long after Julius Caesar is accused of burning it."

and

"The real tragedy of course is not the uncertainty of knowing who to blame for the Library's destruction but that so much of ancient history, literature and learning was lost forever."

quotes by Preston Chesser.

Isn't that the point that the writer should have been making?

Now, if I wanted to use this book as an example of how people's bias dictates history, and study all of the so called "facts" outlined, that would be one thing. But my goal is to use it as the precurser to our study of U.S. History.

Will I read it to my children? Not sure yet.

Ms. Fritz, your bias is showing! I had to edit and editorialize as I read this to my children to correct numerous misstatements and oversimplifications regarding Christianity. For example, Christians were not opposed to scholarship ~ it's largely because of Catholic and Byzantine monks that Greek and Roman literature was preserved.

Furthermore, I've come to think of Jean Fritz as the queen of the sentence fragment. I personally find bad grammar distracting when I'm reading.

This is the first popular book I have seen on the Age of Exploration that lets the reader in on important details that have been evaluated honestly in scholarly works for decades, but which our more traditional popularizers have tended to gloss over in favor of the notion that the Europeans who led the continent's conquest of the world were all both unstoppable and righteous.

(See John H. Perry's "Establishment of the European Hegemony, 1415-1715" (HarperCollins, 1961) for a good example of a more scholarly work that also includes all the warts in its accounts of the famous Age.)

It's a lively, easy-to-read book, and it does a good job of telling both the heroic and the not-so-heroic aspects of the story.

Well done.

As a Christian myself, I'm rather surprised by the reviews claiming this book is full of Christian-bashing. The Christian church at this point in history *did* censor new scientific findings (ie. the earth *does* go around the sun and not the other way around, as the Church used to preach). It's important to realize that Christians haven't always been on the right side of history, since Christians are human and therefore prone to making mistakes.

Overall, I found this book to be an easy-to-read, well-done overview of major European explorers. I liked that each explorer got his own chapter, which makes it easy to use as a reference book for studying this time period as a whole. The text is engaging and the illustrations are appealing, which are wonderful assets for a children's history book.

I was so looking forward to digging into this book with my kids, so we could "explore" the age of exploration. We have enjoyed many of the books by Jean Fritz, especially those written about Colonial and Revolutionary America, but this one should not be included in that list.

Ms. Fritz has an apparent personal dislike for certain groups of people and makes her dislike abundantly clear throughout the work. Unfortunately, this bigoted approach leaves such a bad taste in the reader's mouth that the entire story becomes unpalatable. The worst result of this approach is that Ms. Fritz has decided to rewrite history based on her own personal opinion instead of actual fact. This is a NON-FICTION book, so by inserting fiction into the equation, she has destroyed the trust that a reader should have in an author.

All in all, I was sadly disappointed and will definitely question reading more of this author's work in the future.

The inaccuracies which plague this book are many. The author has allowed a vitriolic personal bias against Christianity to take the place of historical accuracy. In addition to the stunning inaccuracies, the venomous, contemptuous tone of every reference to the Christian faith is problematic. In this day of tolerance, it is surprising that anyone would allow their personal prejudices to be so visible and so hateful, especially in a book for children! In a book which is supposedly based upon history, it is surprising that anyone would print out-and-out lies such as are found in this book. Why did I give it two stars? Because the text, when it is not too busy attacking the author's imaginary archenemy, is refreshing and useful. It is humorous, winsomely written, and fun. The illustrations are great, too. It's sad that the author's personal biases have marred this otherwise fine work.

The European exploration of the rest of the world did not begin in 1492, although that is the impression given to grade school children. In a time when there were few ways to preserve food, Europeans had an almost insatiable demand for spices. Not only did the spices preserve the food; they made it possible to eat it when it was spoiled. When the Turks conquered the Arabian Peninsula, they cut off the overland trade routes where the spices were transported from Asia to Europe. This created a shortage of spices, the consequences of which were serious. Not only did it reduce the food supply in Europe; it also increased the risk of food poisoning.
The solution was to find a sea route to the Spice Islands and the first person to make the attempt was the Portuguese king known as Prince Henry the Navigator. He sent expedition after expedition down the western coast of Africa in search of a route to Asia and other riches. Their primary interest was in spices and gold and when they didn't find much of either, they returned with Africans that were sold into slavery. This was the true beginning of the practice of trafficking in slaves from the African continent. Eventually, Portuguese sailors did reach India, establishing the existence of the route.
However, the route was long and dangerous, the storms on the southern tip of Africa meant that the ships must swing wide of them. This was the impetus for Christopher Columbus to sail westward in an attempt to reach Asia. Even though the Vikings had discovered the Western Hemisphere decades before the time of Columbus, that knowledge was ignored. His ships sailed westward and encountered the Western Hemisphere, opening up two entirely new continents for exploration and exploitation. The book ends with a lengthy description of the voyage of Magellan, who headed the first European expedition to circumnavigate the globe.
This book is an excellent recapitulation of the European voyages of discovery and is frank in describing the thoughts and attitudes of the Europeans. Their interest was in spices and gold and they thought nothing of torturing and killing the people they found in the new territories. The practice of killing a large percentage of entire populations and enslaving the rest became the norm. There were a few who tried to treat the Native peoples as equals most notably Balboa. However, that farsighted attitude did him little good as he was ordered back to Spain where he was beheaded. I strongly recommend this book as a reference in social studies classes where the topic is the European explorations that led to the discovery of the Western Hemisphere.

I only recently discovered Jean Fritz, and with each of her books that my daughter and I read together, I continue to be more and more impressed with her writing skills. She has the ability to bring history and historical figures to life and look at events with a fresh perspective.

Around the World in a Hundred Years tells the stories of how Europeans came to discover some of the less well known parts of the earth. Maybe it's because Ms. Fritz grew up in China, but she has a sensitivity to non-western points of view, and is able to address these events from the point of view of the 'discoverees' as well as the 'discoverers'.

More importantly, she is able to help the reader make those critical connections between events that helps bring make them understandable. I highly recommend this book!

How, in these PC days, did this book ever get published? The constant bashing of Christians isn't just offensive, it's factually incorrect in so many ways. The author belittles the great of accomplishes of many who were motivated by faith, and in general is utterly scornful of her subjects.

It's one thing to present the negative truths of history, slavery really did happen, but quite another to present it in its most brutal and ugly forms IN A CHILDREN'S BOOK.

The writer clearly has personal problems dealing with those of the Christian faith, be they living or dead, and treats her reads with a patronizing scorn as well as her subjects. I'm glad I read this before my son saw it - I try to teach him to look at BOTH sides of a story, something the author fails to do in her rush to condemn the great explorers of history. I call them great not for their treatment of human beings, but for the way they pushed human knowledge far beyond its previous boundaries.

The most dangerous type of history book is the one which laces the truth with lies and is directed towards children. Christians did not discourage curiosity before the Renaissance, as the author of this book claims. That is complete nonsense. I am disappointed that our TOG curriculum actually recommended this book and will be mentioning this to them. There were other critical and false statements made about Christians and Europeans in the book. I suppose this type of writing is acceptable in some circles, but it's a shame to see it directed at children.