Wednesday, April 30, 2014

51:120 The Ancient Roman World by Ronald Mellor and Marni McGee

Covering from the legends regarding the founding of Rome to the fall of the Roman Empire.  There were some famous people like Archimedes that didn't get mentioned so won't be heard of at all in this entire series which I find to be a shame (time to pull out some other books and rectify that) but on the whole a good installment for this series and for middle-school history in general.  It is very difficult reading this one while at the same time reading the "a-g approved" high school Glencoe as it makes Glencoe look absolutely horrid for all the glaring omissions.  This series is just so much richer and goes so much deeper than what is given to our high school kids.  Just continues to go to my point that we should stop worrying about quantity and worry more about quality because what they are being taught in high school really isn't worth anything when it's so shallow the bottom of your shoe barely gets wet if you step in that puddle.

Here's my review from a few years ago:
Part of "The World in Ancient Times" history series for middle school by Oxford.  I learned a lot with this one starting from the beginning as they had more than one version of the founding of Rome.  Weird since all I had ever heard about previously was the story of Romulus and Remus.  There was also a fair amount on the emperors that came after Augustus, how they were chosen, how they ruled, etc.  There was a chapter on the Jews and their history as well as a chapter on how Christianity started and spread.  In all, I felt it was a good well-rounded history book that presented a lot more than just what seems to be typically known and explained the findings that told us these things.

Page count: 190p/12,255p ytd/193,293p lifetime

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