Customer Reviews

If You Were There in 1492: Everyday Life in the Time of Columbus

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Our seven year old son read this book quickly and enjoyed it a great deal. He only likes to read non-fiction and this book had substanitally more text than pictures, which is not usual in non-fiction books aimed at this age range. The book contained lots of information about life in Spain in the Middle Ages that I did not know, including some challenging information about the Spanish Inquisition and the treatment of Jews by the Spaniards of that period.

Excellent book for Homeschoolers! Unfortunately so many books these days distort history and try to make the great men who founded our great country less than what they are. Also this is a book that does not have an atheist secular view. Wow, probably won't be reading it in many public schools, pity.

History comes alive with this book. My daughter loves it very much and has been using it to quote from for her school projects. This is the right way to teach history in my humble opinion.

This "history" is an extreme case of over-characterization. Brenner presents the Moors as nothing but brilliant, wonderful--and innocent--people. Only briefly does she mention that they slaughtered the Christians (though she does not use such strong language for the Moors) when they conquered Spain over 700 years earlier.

She fails to mention that in Spain war between the Christians and the Muslims recurred many times between 711 and 1492, and that when the Muslims were in control, the Christians and the Jews were forced to convert, be slaughtered, or flee. The Ottoman Turks, also Muslims, had invaded Constantinople only 39 years earlier, closing it off to the Christian West, which is why Columbus was seeking a westward route to China in the first place.

Brenner is extreme in her characterization of the Moors and Jews as The Good Guys and the Spanish Catholics as The Bad Guys, so much so one only wonders how accurately she presents the rest of her "facts." In some places she writes with corny melodrama, as in the surrender of Abdallah. It makes for poor "history" overall.