Customer Reviews

World History: Patterns of Interaction

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

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

Absolutely horrible. The book seems to avoid anything other than what its creators personally prefer. I am appalled at the content in this book.

It barely mentions Jews. There is no chapter in the book that focuses on their history, even though Judaism is one of the first monotheistic religions. Yes, there are segments of chapters that mention Jews, but Judaism is not focused on in even those chapters.

This book considers North American and European powers cruel and evil. It is always saying how cruel they have treated other nations, even though they have been treating those nations fairly well.

World War II, the bloodiest war ever to take place, is basically considered a good thing in this book. The holocaust is almost completely disregarded, as is the bombing at Pearl Harbor.

There is more prejudice throughout this book, but it would take hours to write it all down.

To summarize, do NOT buy this book, and always do research on ANY textbook before making a purchase, as it may have incorrect or prejudiced information.

This book has a strong Anti-Western tilt. It whitewashes Islam and is both subtly and at times even overtly negative to Christianity and Western thought. There is "no mention of jihad as a warlike means to expand Islam; Islamic conquest is described as good, Christian conquest as bad; and non-Western civilizations as benign, Western civilizations as evil."A good example is that the book doesn't even mention Muslims or jihad when discussing the 9/11 attacks. It also attributes moral equivalence between the Communists and the West during the Cold War. Its clearly written by far left wing ideologists. I would not want my children to read such a book. Its not objective. It seems like its one of these books funded by the Saudi Arabian Kingdom to promote Islam.

World History Patterns of Interaction is a fairly good book for the basics, but the authors do not do the best at linking everything together. The pictures complements the text nicely. But the book is not geographically split into chapters it is chronological (A bit frustrating for me). The book concentrates on the details that are not of great value. There are better world history books in the market.

I did receive the book I ordered quickly. However, the book that I was sent was GARBAGE! It was listed in "very good" condition when it should have been listed in "trash" condition. This experience was a total waste of my time & hope. The book had massive amounts of highlighting, underlining, & graffiti throughout. The binding of the book had been taped back together. The cover was excessively beat up. No, I didn't contact the seller because if they really cared about customer service they wouldn't have misrepresented the condition of the book. If they truly cared they wouldn't have insulted me by sending me garbage through the mail! Thanks for the disappointment ecampus, just what I've always wanted.

I am a student in 10th grade and I feel that this is the worst excuse for a history book ever. The authors of this book have made it the most monotonous read ever. Once again, DO NOT BUY THIS!

Ok This is a pretty good textbook. Now...it's not great...it can make somethings pretty boring. I'm in 9th grade, and I think that it will help me with the regents exam that I will have to take. It also has some pretty interesting info on topics that it is teaching u. Ex: When you're learning about Africa, on the side of the page, there's a thing on the tsetse fly. Teachers, will find this to be helpful.