World History: Patterns of Interaction (Paperback)

by Roger B. Beck (Author)
Key Phrases: interpreting graphs, national capital, reading critically, United States, World War, Soviet Union (more...)

Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Paperback
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH); Workbook edition (June 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618409386
• ISBN-13: 978-0618409389
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #694,017 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	"pdana" (PA, USA) - 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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Selling a Message, October 29, 2008

By	B. L. Patterson "Red" (My Desk) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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

I purchased this book to read in preparation for my CSET (California Subject Examination for Teachers) test in Social Science. It covers the standards required, but I find it lacking in many other respects. This book reads like a list of facts interjected with how cultural blending and how "such interaction has resulted in the mixing of different cultures in new and exciting ways".

Now let me preface my next statement by saying that cultural understanding, appreciation and tolerance are vital to a healthy country and people. I find world cultures fascinating, or I would not be in the field that I wish to teach in. But this book is so busy beating you over the head with the fact that you should like cultural blending (it says this phrase at least once a page for well over 1000 pages) that it sort of loses the series of events in a fog of social messages.

Cultural blending is something that happens all the time in this world, and often results out of conquest, migrations, trade, and pursuit of religious freedom - as the book points out. However, I feel they sometimes make stretches to drive their point home to the point of losing other themes of intolerance, domination and genocide (which is certainly not limited to WWII). It only gives passing mention to the butchering of people for their beliefs on a massive scale as Protestants and Catholics vied for power politically. It talks about the Shi'a Muslim Safavids and the Sunni Ottoman Turks butchering each other for their rivaling religious views but does not talk about how that may somehow have consequences in today's rift between the two groups. I'm not sure! This book is too busy telling me that the next ruler exported carpets and bought Chinese tiles and how that is cultural blending - not the consequences of 40,000 killed.

There are only shallow analyses in this book. The "consequences" or "legacies" that are so important are only addressed in the conclusions of a few units.

The chapters are organized in a thematic fashion, so it will jump continents and cultures every other unit from England to India to Africa. It also jumps around with the dates a lot as it is *not* chronological. I found it helpful when studying to make my own time lines to get a decent perspective on how things fit together.

In the second half the book, however it seems to take a completely different tone. Beginning with the Age of Exploration, the preachy quality of it dwindles and it focuses on what happened and why. Of course, European power struggles of the 1500-1700's don't really allow digression because of their convoluted nature!

So, did it serve my purpose? In some ways, yes. I will do well on my exam given that this material correlates with the standards on the test. However I would say this coverage is minimal, and if you are a high schooler reading this, this is NOT the book that will tell you whether you like history or not. This is strictly a list of facts to be regurgitated on a test with some values of tolerance sprinkled in.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Book, May 19, 2001

By	Jameson O'Guinn "The Jameson" (Champaign, Illinois) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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

I used this book as a student in my world history class. I couldn't stop reading it and even skipped some of the chapters we were supposed to be reading in the course. I recommend this book to any teachers who teach history. It is very informative. The only problem is that it is VERY big and you can't fit it into a backpack well