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lapazfarm
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| Posted: June 19 2010 at 12:34pm | IP Logged
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My son will be diving into Greek and Roman history next year, notebooking using History Scribe's History Scholar pages.
He is reading lots of great living books from the eras, but in order to complete the notebooking pages he needs excellent, in-depth reference materials from which to do his research. In pulling books from my shelves I realize we have a bit of a shortage in that department. The only reference book we have that covers that time period is our Kingfisher History of the World, which we have had forever. I think it is a good reference, but it just is not meaty enough in the time periods I need (the drawback of trying to fit all of history in one book, I suppose). I ordered the Usborne Book of World History to supplement it, but it appears to have even lighter coverage.
Can any of you recommend a really meaty World History reference book that gives adequate coverage of the Greeks and Romans, enough for a motivated high school student?
Or should I be thinking instead of getting individual reference books covering only the specific eras in question? If so, do you have any suggestions?
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Theresa
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JennGM
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| Posted: June 19 2010 at 12:40pm | IP Logged
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Theresa,
Is he only covering Greek and Roman? And does the Roman extend into A.D. with the emperors?
Instead of a World history, perhaps you need specialized Greek and Roman reference for more details?
Can you give examples of what kind of things he will be studying and trying to find?
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Mackfam
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| Posted: June 19 2010 at 1:36pm | IP Logged
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I have a few recommendations. You may have some of these already though...
The Timetables of History by Bernard Grun - incredible reference for all of history. It gives voluminous at-a-glance information and is indispensable tool on our shelves. I always feel I need to add that I have a 1982 copy, and I'm not sure what the updated/revised edition may contain...other than those events which have taken place since 1982.  Still...it's a great reference.
Oxford First Ancient History by Roy Burrell - this wouldn't quite be high school level, but would be above your Kingfisher. It has some really good solid information in it, and my dd enjoyed the writing style. It's a good compendium and if you were filling in with meaty living books, it might provide enough of a skeleton to hang information from.
Dorothy Mills books would fit your son's age and the period he's studying very well. I was thinking especially of The Book of the Ancient Greeks and The Book of the Ancient Romans, but she also has written The Book of the Ancient World. I haven't read these yet, but both my brother and sister did when they were in high school and they liked them very much.
HTH!
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Jen Mackintosh
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: June 19 2010 at 5:34pm | IP Logged
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Very helpful, Jen, thanks!
Jennifer
For fall semester we will be covering the time periods from approx 2200BC (Minoans) touching on Myceneans and Trojans (so we can get Homer in) and Phonecians, and then focusing on The Greek classical period through Alexander the Great. Then after Christmas we turn to Rome, from founding to fall (so, approx to 500 AD).
As we pass through each time period we will be looking at what is happening elsewhere in the world (Asia, the Americas, etc) but our focus will be on Greece and Rome for the entire year. It's what ds wants, so...
Here is what I have for him, living book-wise so far. Most of these will be really easy reads for him (some of them perhaps too easy, but since he missed out on them the first time through, I think he should have the chance to enjoy them.) Plus, his heavier reading and main focus will be the research for the History Scribe notebook pages, so I don't want to bog him down with anything too heavy for extra reading. I'd like to keep that light and enjoyable.
In roughly chronological order:
Hittite Warrior
Black ships Before Troy
Herodotus and the Road to History
Famous Men of Greece
Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea (selections as read-aloud due to adult content in book)
Archimedes and the Door of Science
The Librarian Who Measured the World
Famous Men of Rome
City (David MacCauley)
Julius Caesar (Shakespeare)
Augustus Caesar's World
Galen and the Gateway to Medicine
So, as you can see, most of it is pretty light reading. I really need those beefy reference materials to take things up a notch for him. I will take a look at the ones you linked, Jen.
Thanks again.
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Theresa
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: June 19 2010 at 5:54pm | IP Logged
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Oh, I forgot to mention, since we are studying public speaking as a literary form this year, he will also be reading some famous speeches, such as Pericles (funeral oration), Socrates (address to judges upon his death sentence) and Empress Theodora (refusing to flee Rome), Demosthenes, Alexander the Great, Cicero, Jesus (sermon on the mount)etc.
These are definitely meaty stuff.
(Any suggestions here are welcome also)
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Theresa
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KackyK
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| Posted: April 30 2011 at 10:15am | IP Logged
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Theresa how did ds like the reading, the non-referencey stuffs?
I'm beginning my list for some 'fun' ancient reads for my ds who will be 9th grade next year. Did you find anymore to add to the list??
I have to tell you, all year, when I go into our local HUGE used book store, I am always looking for that Asimov The Greeks book...can't find it yet! It's rather pricey online. Did you guys like it?
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: April 30 2011 at 12:14pm | IP Logged
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The Asimov book was a great hit. Very much more readable than any other reference book we found. I highly recommend it if you can track it down. We lucked up that our library had it.
For Rome we ended up using Charles Morris's Historical Tales: Roman, which he really, really likes. It's out of print but I had it printed up from Google books for 10 bucks. Not a bad deal. We will definitely be seeking out more Morris tales for futre history spines. He is awesome. Very readable, like Hilyer, but for an older audience.
As or the non-referency stuff, I ended up switching out some of the less challenging titles for some more meaty stuff as he seemed to like it better and was up for the challenge.
Biggest hits were The Odyssey (Homer),The Glorious Adventure (Richard Haliburton), Julius Caesar (Shakespeare), Alexander of Macedon (Harold Lamb), and Socrates speeches.
Of all of the books read for the entire year, I'd have to say he got the most out of the Roman Tales book and The Odyssey.
If you are looking for lighter fare,he enjoyed Hittite Warrior and Black Ships Before Troy, too. He just thought they were a bit on the young side for him.
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Theresa
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4Real Forums : Across Time and Place
Topic: World history reference materials
