Susan wise bauer history of the modern world
I'm not sure what phase this is (Phase 4? Phase 27?), but in working through the aftermath of losing both my parents last year, I'm now down to sorting out the thousands and thousands of books that occupy every spare shelf in this big old house.
Many of them I'm keeping, of course. Many of them are not worth keeping. And then there's the third category: all of the books on how to be righteous, have a godly family, and raise perfect children that turned out to have been written by serial adulterers, cheaters, frauds, abusers, and sexual predators.
As I sort through them, the familiarity is overwhelming me. (I can only sort for about twenty minutes at a time before I have to go outside and talk to a horse for a while.) I remember the names, the principles, the trust that my loving, conscientious parents put in all of this advice that, in the end, was found to have risen up out of deeply corrupt lives and ambitions.
I don't have any great insight stemming from this, unless it's "Maybe the way to have a healthy family and functioning children isn't found in a book." Mostly, I just feel a deep, weary sadness.
Also, if anyone wants a w
"All books by Susan Wise Bauer"
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The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople
Susan Wise Bauer
Hardback, 2013
A lively and fascinating narrative history about the birth of the modern world.
The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade
Susan Wise Bauer
Hardback, 2010
A masterful narrative of the Middle Ages, when religion became a weapon for kings all over the world.
The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome
Susan Wise Bauer
Hardback, 2007
A lively and engaging narrative history showing the common threads in the cultures that gave birth to our own.
The Story of Western Science: From the Writings of Aristotle to the Big Bang Theory
Susan Wise Bauer
Hardback, 2015
A guide to the best science writing, which tells the centuries-long story of our striving to understand the world.
The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had
Susan Wise Bauer
Hardback, 2004
An engaging, accessible guide to educating yourself in the classical tradition.
Writing with Ease: Strong Funda
Shop The History of the World
Susan Wise Bauer’s acclaimed History of the World series takes you from Sumer to Sri Lanka, from Hammurabi to Henry V, telling the story of civilizations around the world. Dozens of custom-created maps accompany each volume so that you won’t get lost on your journey.
Each volume in this series can be a full year of history study for advanced high school students by adding our Study & Teaching Guides. These guides provide review questions, essay topics, map exercises, and grading rubrics to minimize prep time and maximize understanding.
Publishers Weekly: “Witty and well-written…rich in detail and intriguing in anecdotal information.”
Kirkus Reviews: “The author has an excellent eye for presenting her subject in bold strokes, memorable themes, and without undue clutter…a wide-angle, thorough world survey…complete with immensely useful timelines and maps.”
And for younger readers, check out The Story of the World, Susan’s popular history series for elementary students.
The Modern Age: From Victoria's Empire to the End of the USSR
January 16, 2019It all started with the introduction. Susan Intelligent Bauer starts this work with an introduction (like she does with the others) and I was disturbed. It's just a page or two, but it bothered me. The tone communicates these opening words were written at the end of a long, difficult project (which I am sure this was). Perhaps she was too rushed. But after I got over her strong exhortation not to reveal a child younger than 4th grade to this material, this is what bothered me:
1) What she said was historically incorrect.
She references a revolution-despotism cycle as inevitable. Yet, the American Revolution did not lead (at least not immediately) to a dictatorial form of government. Is it the exception? Perhaps. Seeing as the audience is primarily North American and we are coming to this introduction having just studied the American Revolution, her assertion struck me as odd at best, inaccurate at worst. Of course, we also hear of the revolution of Canada and it's quest to govern itself within the commonwealth early in this volume. Again, no tyranny there either. Hmmm....
2) What she said was theologI haven’t made too many blog posts recently.
I used to post a lot more. About the writing process and about what I read in my spare time and about all the things that get in the way of work. Actually, a lot of that.
And about my other ongoing responsibilities for previous books and my publicity travel and the photos on the covers of my books and the book business from a writer’s point of view and the things that get in the way of writing. And about NOTHING AT ALL, when I felt like it.
For the last six months or so, I haven’t really blogged at all. So now I’m going to tell you why.
BECAUSE WRITING THE HISTORY OF THE WHOLE WORLD IS A FULL-TIME JOB.
Let me “nuance that,” as one of my least favorite lit professors used to say: Writing the history of the world is a job that becomes more and more consuming with time, until there is nothing left but a huge stack of primary resources and an Everest-sized pile of secondary research that Must. Be. Looked. At. Or else you’ll miss something that everyone in the world but you knows.
(“I don’t know if you’ve realized this,” remarks Starling Lawrence, my esteemed and som