World History: Patterns of Interaction [Hardcover]

Roger B. Beck (Author), Linda Black (Author), Larry S. Krieger (Author), Phillip C. Naylor (Author), Dahia Ibo Shabaka (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1376 pages
• Publisher: McDougal Littell, division of Houghton Mifflin Co. (January 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 061818774X
• ISBN-13: 978-0618187744
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 9 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #243,131 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't buy., January 28, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: World History: Patterns of Interaction (Hardcover)

If you're reading this, you're probably either a very odd little child who wants to do some extra reading or you're a teacher or homeschooling parent.. so I'll speak to the latter two.
This book is terrible. I was shocked to find that the object of many hours of study for my IB World History class was this middle school-level book. It's filled with more pictures and phony biographical sketches than information and (heaven forbid) intelligent analysis.
Not only is it monotonous and dull, it's superficial. One thing I found is the end of the Viking terror in Europe is justified in this book by two reasons alone: the acceptance of Christianity and an increase in agricultural projects due to warmer climate. This answer is vague and misleading. Although the climate did increase, it did not lead the Vikings simply to lounge around and farm. What happened was they moved to Iceland and Greenland, where the land was suddenly more inhabitable. What is also intentially misleading here is the part about accepting a new religion. The point was that there was a distinct change in philosophy - dying for their pagan god was once considered a great honor, but without him there was little point - not a change in moral values as the wording suggests. As my book quotes, "the Vikings were awesome."

Sure, this is only a considerably minor fault for such a large book, but there are too many similar examples. This book is a poor choice. Unfortunately, most textbooks do fall behind in their purpose. I would suggest finding a better book but not sticking soley to it, as textbooks tend to have their faults. Resources such as the History channel and historical articles are effective and much more interesting. Guns Germs and Steel is also a great choice. Please use them to your advantage and save another unfortunate child the torture of reading this.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AWESOME RESOURCE, March 12, 2010

By 

Kathleen M. Boyd (Langhorne, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: World History: Patterns of Interaction (Hardcover)

This book is incredible. My son was using this in high school and my husband - who is a social studies middle school teacher wanted one so we ordered it. It has a wealth of information and my younger children coming up will benefit from it too. A fantastic resource that every inquiring mind should own!

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book!, June 2, 2000

By 

"pdana" - See all my reviews

This review is from: World History: Patterns of Interaction (Hardcover)

This book is really pretty darn good! It makes things pretty interesting when you are not interested in History. I use it and I am homeschooed in the 8th grade. I will also use it next year, it's a great two year program. I don't know why the other two reviewers didn't like it but I find it a lot better than previous history books.