Social Studies: Across the Centuries/ Level 7 (Houghton Mifflin Social Studies) [Hardcover]

McDougal (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin School (March 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395548942
• ISBN-13: 978-0395548943
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,678,232 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars From a former student, April 2, 2003

By 

Stephanie "stevi_d" (Columbia, MO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Social Studies: Across the Centuries/ Level 7 (Houghton Mifflin Social Studies) (Hardcover)

I was 12 years old in 1993 when I took 7th grade Social Studies. The text was this book, Across the Centuries. At this age, I was certainly no zealot for my religion (Christian), but something about this book made me uncomfortable. I felt that my classmates were getting a poor view of Christianity. I was ashamed of my religion because the text portrayed it as violent and oppressive. I don't recall if any other religions were cast in a better light - but I do know that I learned massive amounts of history and beliefs of Islam, which I felt helped me better understand my close friend who was Muslim. But I didn't feel that the book did the same for my religion. If anything, I had to explain to my friend that Christianity wasn't as bad as the book made it seem.

Now, the book doesn't tell people to become Muslim - though it does tell you how to do it if you want to (all it takes is confessing that you beleive Allah is the only god and Muhammad is his prophet). But then, it doesn't tell people how to become Christian (or Hindu or Jewish) if they want to.

Since hearing all the controversy about this book, I have felt I should share how I felt about it as a student who was actually taught from the book - not just someone who read it or browsed through it. I think it portrays a lopsided view of religion - giving some lots of positive coverage and others negative coverage or none at all. If you really want your children to learn about all cultures or religions equally, this is not the book to use - or at least not the ONLY book to use.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Bias you can count, April 7, 2011

By 

Brian Mitchell (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Social Studies: Across the Centuries/ Level 7 (Houghton Mifflin Social Studies) (Hardcover)

Shortly after the capture of John Phillip Walker Lindh, the "American Taliban," I wrote an article about this book for my paper, Investor's Business Daily. When Lindh was in school, this book was widely used in his home state of California, having been the only book approved for use for middle schools in that state for several years. In writing my article, I did a textual analysis of the chapters on Christianity and Islam, counting the instances in which the words "persecute" and "tolerate" were used in their various forms. By my count, Christians were said to persecute people 10 times while Muslims were described as tolerant 10 times. Even worse, Christians were never described as tolerant and Muslims were never said to persecute people. So there you go.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Clearly a pro-Muslim book, July 2, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Social Studies: Across the Centuries/ Level 7 (Houghton Mifflin Social Studies) (Hardcover)

I have read all the chapters dealing with religion in this book very closely. While it may seem that there is nothing wrong with the book by browsing through it, taking a closer look at the text shows that the book pretty much promotes Islam while very clearly putting down Christianity.