Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 This Country of Ours August 31, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Wonderful history resource for American History. Great stories, fairly short chapters for independent readers.
Homeschool mom,
Amy in TN
 I would give it zero starts, if I could August 31, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
I bought this book as part of the Ambleside Online homeschooling curriculum, intending to read it to my children. Fortunately I did not hand it to them to read as I had to change significant portions of it so that they wouldn't hear racist information from their history text.
I understand that there are biases in every history text, but there has to be something better than this book. Good writing cannot make up for all of the major problems with this book.
poor homeschooling curriculum choice August 26, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Personally, I was considering this book for use in my homeschooling curriculum using the Charlotte Mason philosophy. Though the literary style of this book maybe of sound quality and make for an entertaining read- those of us choosing to homeschool our children to give them access to better sources of information than they would receive in a formal school setting should reconsider reading such obviously biased takes on history to impressionable children.
Reading a source like this may be of value once children have reached an age of critical analysis at which they can consider for themselves the bias (and as one reviewer pointed out - prejudices and hate-mongering-)inherent in works such as these- when they could conclude that propaganda to sway public opinion is a part of many nations histories
Research after reading poor review July 8, 2008
17 out of 21 found this review helpful
After reading the "poor research" review, I decided to do my own search. The book is available entirely free of charge on-line, so I would recommend this to you. I chose the topic "Mormons" because I am a Mormon.
I really wanted to read this book with my kids, but my brief perusal on the Mormon topic leads me to believe that many of the chapters will be comprised more on popular myth than documented fact. This book is drivel, and our children deserve more real books as well as carefully documented source materials.
HERE'S WHY I THINK SO
Quote from book:
"Mormonism was a new religion founded by Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith was a shiftless, idle, jovial fellow, one of a large family as shiftless and idle as himself. He was very ignorant, but he had a wonderful imagination, and he could never tell the simplest happening of his everyday life without making a great story out of it."
This is an entertaining style for children, but what about the authors tone of voice, and point of view? Does this even sound like research? If so, where are the supporting examples and evidences. I see no notation for references in the bibliography, and no bibliography was available on-line. I would be very interested to see one, if there is one. This is supposed to be a history book, but I found the tone and content to be entirely biased and lacking any semblance of research. Today we call undocumented defamation of character SLANDER.
Let's read some more of what she has to say about Mormons:
"They now became a community by themselves, they moved about from place to place, and at length settled in Illinois where they built a city called Nauvoo."
MISSING IMPORTANT DETAILS
I am sorry to say that the cause of moving from place to place was that their homes were burned, women and children forced to walk out in the middle of the night barefoot in the winter with no place to go. On one occassion an entire town was besieged by a mob of men in painted faces. Women and children shot down in broad daylight. Most of the men assembled in one central location to defend the town (Haun's Mill) were killed, and when one small boy was found to be still alive among that group a mobman said "nits breed lice" and shot him in the head. His older brother survived to record that in his journal, of which my sister has a copy and we have both read with her own eyes from the original. Violence on that day was not restricted to Mormons, but also to non-Mormons who were living peacefully with them. One particularly distressing account is the old man quietly opening his door to be hacked to pieces by farm tools. His crime? Mormons didn't bother him.
I digress. Back to the book. The author claims that the cause of this contention against the Mormons was theft:
"Soon the people of Illinois began to dislike the Latter-day Saints, as they called themselves. For they stole horses and cattle and all sorts of things belonging to other settlers. And once anything was stolen by the Mormons, it was impossible to get it back. For if a stranger went to their city, and showed by his questions that he had come to look for something he had lost, he soon found himself followed by a Mormon who silently whittled a stick with a long sharp knife. Soon the man would be joined by another, also whittling a stick with a long knife. Then another and another would silently join the procession, until the stranger could stand it no longer and hastily departed homeward."
This is a SERIOUS ACCUSATION, and deserves fair treatment of specific instances, quantity and type as well as source- witnesses, and their credibility.
I have read many personal accounts of Nauvoo, my own ancestors were Pennsylvania Quakers who joined the Mormons in Nauvoo. They were not thieves, it went against all they believed, as well as their very nature. In fact, when I think of my own dear great great grandmother being forced to leave her nicely built home during February- crossing the river to set up a tent and there later deliver her baby-- while jovial mobsters revelled in all the mortal wealth that was now left to them, I believe there were thieves in Nauvoo, but not the Mormons.
Unfortunately, the fact that Mormons were opposed to slavery, and many non-Mormons hoped to become a slave state was as great, if not greater reason for the rioting than general opposition to the Mormon's unfathomable (to many) ways of seeing the world. Why was this debate not even mentioned?
If you do choose to use this text, think of your own religious beliefs that you hold dear. Think of your own family stories of courage and virtue. Then pause before you read that chapter and consider if you would want them to be portrayed in such a manner. Think of my children, who honor their heritage- how will this affect the manner in which your children perceive them and treat them. PREJUDICE and slander of any group is PAINFUL and WRONG.
If you think Mormons are a worthwhile topic to study, please choose a boader range of materials and viewpoints. There are truly some inspiring people in that history- just as there have been and are in many other religions.
 Wonderfully interesting! July 3, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book is wonderfully well written, and captivating for children (8-11 yr olds) and adults. There is exactly the perspective one would expect from an author writing in 1917, and I would suggest using additional works to suplement this for elementary history education. For example, when describing how Florida became a state the author writes as though the indigenous Native Americans occupying the land agreed to relocate. The reality is, as with much of our country's history, the Indians were forcibly, and often brutally, removed and displaced from their homeland. The idea that the US Government acted inappropriately is not even hinted at! That being said, we have used this text in homeschooling, and are enthralled with the the storytelling style. It is important to use a variety of sources for a well rounded education--and to take advantage of a more mature and realistic perspective that only hindsight can provide.
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