Story of the World:Ancient Times Vol. 1 Hard Cover [Hardcover]

S. Wise / West, Jeff (Illustrator) Bauer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2006

What terrible secret was buried in Shi Huangdi s tomb? Did nomads like lizard stew? What happened to Anansi the Spider in the Village of the Plantains? And how did a six-year old become the last emperor of Rome?The Story of the World is a read-aloud series is designed for parents and teachers to share with elementary school children. Volume 1 covers ancient times (5000 BC to 400 AD).Author: Susan Wise BauerFormat: 338 pages, hardcoverPublisher: Peace Hill PressISBN: 9-781933-339016

Product Details

• Hardcover: 338 pages
• Publisher: Amazon; Revised Second Edition edition (2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933339012
• ISBN-13: 978-1933339016
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (111 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #239,884 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Susan was born in 1968, grew up in Virginia, and was educated at home by pioneering parents, back when home education was still unheard of. She worked as a professional musician, wore a costume at Colonial Williamsburg, toured with a travelling drama group, galloped racehorses at a Virginia racetrack, taught horseback riding, worked in radio and newspaper ad sales, learned enough Korean to teach a Korean four-year-old Sunday school, and served as librarian and reading tutor for the Rita Welsh Adult Literacy Center in Williamsburg, Virginia.

In her less haphazard adult life, she earned an M.A., M.Div., and Ph.D. She has taught at the College of William & Mary in Virginia for the last sixteen years. Susan is married and the mother of four.

Susan's most recent book for Norton, The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade (2010), is the second in a four-volume series providing a narrative world history. Look for the first volume, The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome, as well!

Her previous book, The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had (2003), is a guide to reading the classic works of fiction, poetry, history, autobiography, and drama. Norton also published The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home (with co-author Jessie Wise); originally published in 1999, this bestselling guide to education in the classical tradition was revised and updated in 2004 and again in 2009.

For Peace Hill Press, Susan has written a four-volume world history series for children, The Story of the World, for Peace Hill Press. Volume 1, Ancient Times, was published in 2002 (revised edition 2006); Volume 2, The Middle Ages, in 2003 (revised edition 2007); and Volume 3, Early Modern Times, in 2004. The final volume, The Modern Age, was published in 2006. She has also written a best-selling elementary writing program, Writing With Ease.

Susan is also the author of The Art of the Public Grovel (Princeton University Press) and many articles and reviews. Visit her blog at http://www.susanwisebauer.com/blog.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent.... for its intended purpose, March 28, 2011

By 

homewith4 - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Volume 1: Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor, Revised Edition (Paperback)

We used this book last year and are now half way through the second volume. I think both books do a phenomenal job of meeting their stated purpose: to INTRODUCE world history in an engaging fashion to early elementary aged students. I think it's very important to purchase the activity book along with the book, as the activity book not only has tons of really fun and reasonably simple activities that help bring history alive, but also contains stellar recommendations for further reading. The fact that many of those recommendations flat out contradict the viewpoints presented by the author in this book is an indication of Bauer's academic integrity, in my opinion.

Many of the critiques of this series hinge on the fact that the book is loaded with inaccuracies and mythology. It is. But even stick-to-the-facts-and-only-the-facts history text books (which are BORING) are full of inaccuracies. At least this is interesting. Also, an understanding of the intended purpose of the book is important. It's designed as a read-aloud, NOT to be read independently by the child. It's also designed to serve as an INTRODUCTION to historical topics and parents are encouraged to supplement the stories by doing further investigation. I'd like to see the book that could adequately present all of the complexities and varying historical arguments about a topic in two pages in a child-friendly format.

I think there is a Christian bias throughout the book, but as a non-Christian I haven't found that to be particularly problematic. For example, the story of the Exodus is presented in a much more factual format than many of the other mythologies in the book. There are plenty of people who believe in the absolute historical accuracy of that story, so for them that's just fine. If you don't, it's not like it's exactly difficult to point out to your child how extremely similar that story is to so many other religious mythologies of the time period (which are also included in the book). Again, that's why it's designed as a read-aloud, rather than a story to be read independently, so that the stories can inspire a discussion between the parent and the child. In areas that don't touch on sensitive topics for Christians, I've found the stories to be fairly balanced and there's plenty of places where Bauer points out the limitations of historical "knowledge."

For us, the books have served their purpose exactly. My 7 year old son thinks history is interesting and fun. He's also able to ask some pretty interesting questions and draw connections. The viewpoints he's acquiring through studying history in this format are thoughtful and he's not inclined to take everything he reads as verbatim truth. A few of his historical observations:
1- reacting to a story on the news about suicide bombers "That's not such a good idea. The Egyptians would have thought that the devourer would eat your heart if you carry around so much hatred in it."
2- reacting to another story about the conflict between modern day Iran and the US. "Why doesn't the Iranian government read their own history? If they'd treat people the way Cyrus the Great did they wouldn't have so many problems."
3- reaction to the story of David and Goliath- "Why was David so sure God would be on his side? Didn't the Jews teach that God created all people? So doesn't that mean that God created Goliath too? Then why is David so sure God will choose him?"
4- after reading about Confucious- "Oh, his teachings were a whole lot like the Buddha's teachings. Maybe they learned from the same place."
5- after reading about the Chinese invasion of Korea and the Frankish King Clovis' forced conversion to Christianity of his people- "These kings didn't pay very much attention to their own religions. How can the Chinese kings claim to be Buddhists and then attack Korea? And I don't know if the French people would really be Christians if they were forced to be but obviously Clovis wasn't a very good Christian. Christ never said you could cut somebody's head off if they didn't believe in Christ!"

Now, I contrast that to my own historical perspectives when I was his age and learning history (which was naturally confined to American history) in a 2nd grade public classroom: The pilgrims and the Indians were great friends, as indicated by the story of Thanksgiving. President Lincoln was always completely honest and he loved black people so he freed the slaves. Talk about bias. All in all, I'm not in the least concerned about the inaccuracies in Story of the World.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Engaging, but some serious flaws, March 6, 2011

By 

larin - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Volume 1: Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor, Revised Edition (Paperback)

Having read and enjoyed Susan Wise Bauer's larger volume of history for adults, I was excited to use this book set with my children. Halfway through it I have decided to continue my search for a foundation for my history class.

My classroom experience using this text has been good in many ways. The story format is engaging, as history should be for a young person (in this case second and third graders). Including stories and myths from those times is not a bad thing, and it is up to the teacher to be able to help the student differentiate between the two. Remember that many of the people of these time periods did believe these things and based their cultures on them. That doesn't mean we have to take the stories as the truth, but knowing them gives us insight into other aspects of these cultures and how they developed further. Students should learn factual information, but I think many approaches to history are so factual that they end up becoming dry, dull drudgery for students, causing them to lose any enjoyment they may have had of the subject.

On that topic, I have greatly enjoyed working through some of the supplemental activities with my students. More importantly the students have loved the activities and have told their parents that history is their favorite subject. I do not do every activity, but choose the ones that give the students a stronger sense of what it would be like to live during this time period. Some of the suggestions in the activity guide have given me ideas for my own projects that the students have really enjoyed, as well. I have the first version of the activity guide and would not recommend it. I also teach art and would endorse very few of the drawings in the book; why expose your young people to such bad art? Buy a Dover or Bellerophon coloring book instead. I have seen some of the drawings in the newer books and they frequently strike me as being drawn in a fierce comic book style, which I'm not sure I like either. One of the benefits of the hands-on activities is that students remember them, which improves retention of the other information. The resources listed for each section are immensely helpful (although my library really needs to have more of them!).

With an engaging storyline approach, some interesting activities, helpful resources and students who are enjoying and remembering the history, what's not to like? There are three things that consistently bother me about this text: over-simplification of information, factual errors and poor writing that comes across as patronizing.

Many historical events can be complex and need simplification, but not to this level. There are several places where the history is condensed and simplified to the point that some events are represented inaccurately. The retelling of the Peloponnesian War should be an embarrassment to the author and the editors. To only mention Pericles' name in one sentence is disgraceful, given his importance during this time period. Unfortunately some of this simplification isn't even necessary, as in sections of the story of Cyrus. Even younger children can understand some of the events that are omitted.

The extreme simplification exacerbates, and at times creates, another problem: factual errors. This is part of the problem with the Peloponnesian War chapter; the story of Alcibiades contains many untrue statements. I am not even planning to use this chapter with my students. Instead we will be reading the story of Alcibiades from "Famous Men of Greece." It frustrates me to know that many people using this book will never catch these errors since they are not well-versed with history themselves. An example of this problem in the activity book is the picture of the Spartan boy hiding the fox: he is wearing Roman armor. Ironically this is one of the better drawings in the book, but I hope it has been removed in the revised version. Like some other users I have reordered some of the chapters to make better sense.

The last complaint I have about this book is the writing and word choice. Children are not simpletons. If we want them to grow up and not be simpletons in adulthood we need to challenge them and teach them, raising them up, not stooping down. Simple things such as word choice have frustrated me, which were not issues in her book for adults. One of the few banned words in my classroom is "got" because it is such a weak verb in most applications, yet it is used repeatedly throughout the text (I eventually began crossing it out in my book and replacing it with something stronger). Children develop an ear for and an understanding of language by encountering it, whether listening to it or reading it themselves, so we should expose them to well-written works. I am disappointed in the quality of the writing in this book.

Overall, I would chose this book over some other history programs I have seen, simply because it does engage students. I would rather see a child develop a love of subjects and learning in general during these younger years and have some of their factual information corrected later (some of which won't be remembered anyway; I also teach middle school and see how much is not retained unless the student really loved the subject). However, I have heavily supplemented in places to provide the information that has been left out (supplementing should happen in most programs, but not for this reason). For anyone looking for a history book with more meat, you might try the Famous Men series. Unfortunately it does not cover all time periods or cultures.

I hope this information is helpful in deciding if this book is right for you. I borrowed a copy from the library first and perused it, but didn't read deeply enough to see the flaws. It still has been very useful for me, but I would recommend you find one and examine it to decide for yourself whether or not the problems can be overcome. It's easy for me to do because I already know this section of history, but if you don't, I would recommend you make sure to use adequate supplemental materials. (But it's never too late for you to learn it too! ;-) )

30 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not for all ages, June 21, 2008

By 

Cloverleigh "For God, kids, and country" (Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Volume 1: Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor, Revised Edition (Paperback)

I homeschooled our older daughter for six years back in the Dark Ages (the mid 90's). We switched over to learning about history chronologically, a relatively "new" idea then,after being convinced at a curriculum fair presentation of its sensibleness. It was the best advice we ever had, and that daughter is graduating college next year as a history major, and as president of her history honorary fraternity. (We used GreenLeaf Press' "Famous Men..." series, BTW.)
Now 10 years later we are taking our younger daughter out and will begin homeschooling her in 2nd grade. Enough of the public school "Twaddle"!!
"Famous Men" is too high a reading comprehension level for her, so I have been researching the plethora of chrono-history books out there to find an alternative. I followed the guidelines by Susan Wise Bauer of "The Well-Trained Mind" to use "The Story of the World" series.
However, after thumbing through it and comparing it with others, I do not feel it will hold the interest of my wiggly 7 year-old. The reading level seems minimally for 4th-grade. I wouldn't want to turn her off right from the start.
For me the benchmark is Hillyers' "A Child's History of the World." The writing style is so personal, clever, and engaging. But if you want a curriculum that has an even stronger Christian bent, and that teaches from a Biblical chronology, look into Linda Hobar's "The Mystery of History". This author comes closest to Hillyer's wit and child-friendliness, and yet does not dumb it down. There are age-appropriate activities built right into the book (no second purchase required), plus instructions on making your own timeline and historical figures to add as you read. (a la a famous Unit Study series). Like "History of the World", it is a several-volume series. You will probably have to go outside Amazon to find it. (http://www.themysteryofhistory.com/)
Another very Christian-based chrono-history curriculum is "Tapestry of Grace." Not as "warm and fuzzy" in my view, but lots of great multi-age teaching and activities that suppport a classical education. Appropriate through high school.