|
in 330 pages |
When I first heard about these books around 1996, I figured that the gushing review in the discount homeschooling catalog was just hype to sell more books. I skipped right over Augustus Caesar's World thinking, "Nothing's that great." These books were still a bit beyond my children age-wise, and we were enjoying ourselves reading Hillyer's A Child's History of the World. But then, about two years later, I was over at a friend's home and got a chance to spend about half an hour with Foster's tome on Caesar and then put it on my list of books to buy! I wasn't totally hooked, but it looked like a good book to have handy. Once I actually bought it and read it, though, I was hooked. It's excellent, but I won't gush so that you won't think I'm just trying to sell you this book. ;-) I'll just give a description so that you'll be able to decide whether this book will be worth looking into. It's frustrating to not be able to see a book before buying, and this is a difficult book to see since it's not stocked by local bookstores.
Okay, I'll start off with the boring details. Original copyright is 1947. The size is 10" tall and 7.5" wide. It's just over 3/4" thick. It's a paperback and has b&w illustrations. There are 5 parts and 330 pages. The table of contents is not easy to use since it just gives all the topics of each part and then the page that each part begins on. The indices are a little more helpful, though. One is three pages long and contains names of people and the other index is shorter and more general.
The complete title of the book is Augustus Caesar's World: A Story of Ideas and Events from 44 B.C. to A.D. 14. The book starts off (after the table to contents) with an Introduction of 3 pages and a very creative timeline shaped like a handheld fan. It informs the reader of the events that are going to be covered in the book along with a note that ideas are also going to be discussed.
As with all five parts, Part 1 begins with a two-page spread of illustrations (Figure 2). The pages are entitled, "People Who Were Living When Augustus was Octavius and Some Events that Took Place Between 44 and 42 B. C." A total of about 14 people/events are shown with notes. There are pictures of Caesar, Antony, Brutus, Cleopatra, Octavius, Ptolemy Caesar, Cicero, Octavia, Maecenas, the Triumvirate, Livy, and Agrippa. Part 1 tells of Julius Caesar's death, Octavian's (Augustus') decision to return to Rome, Cleopatra's trip back to Egypt, Cicero's influence, the bitter struggle for power after Julius Caesar's death, the Triumvirate, Livy's childhood, death of the Roman Republic, and the celebration of Saturnalia. If your student can't place who he's reading about, he can just turn back to the handy two-page spread of line drawings at the beginning of Part 1 and refresh his memory.
The drawing in part 1 that I like best is the diagram of a Roman House showing the tablinum, peristylum, culina, etc. Actually, the whole book contains quite a few drawings. Genevieve Foster is well known for her illustrations, and this book is peppered with them. Many of the pages have drawings (Figure 1). You don't see a picture every time you turn a page, but about half the time you'll have a drawing to look at. I counted the illustrations in this book and came up with around 143 (not counting the two page spreads at the beginning of each chapter, Figure 2). I include this type of information in case you have students you really need a picture on every page or who look at a page full of text as an insurmountable barrier. There are quite a few pages where there are no illustrations; I'd say about half of them are illustration-free. The pictures themselves are sometimes only for decorative purposes, while at other times they are instructive--a water clock, a map, or a plan of a temple.
Many different
sources call Foster's works "horizontal histories." I suppose this
is because she tells history in a way similar to the simple table I've
constructed just below.
| Rome | Greece | Egypt | Israel | China | |
| 300 B.C. | Socrates
Plato Aristotle Alexander |
||||
| 200 B.C. | Maccabees | ||||
| 44 B.C. | Julius Caesar Augustus | Cleopatra | Herod | Silk Road | |
| A.D. 1 | |||||
| A.D. 14 | Augustus dies |
In this book, Augustus Caesar's World, Foster writes about Rome, Greece, Egypt, Israel, and to a lesser degree, China, India, America, and Persia. She covers the events and people in the "horizontal" time period of 44 B.C. to A.D. 14 (Augustus Caesar's rule). That's why her books are called "horizontal histories." And you know, this horizontal way of studying history is actually quite beneficial. A person is partially defined by their environment and the times they live in. Putting a person in their historical context can reveal their motives and different facets of their character that can't always been observed when studying from a more limited viewpoint.
While I've heard of folks using these books with students in grades 3 - 5, I've been saving them for high school. (Except the George Washington one, which we did back in the winter of 2001. More on that later.) I think that these books are a great introduction to each specific time period. I read Augustus Caesar's World back in 1998 or 1999 and enjoyed it a lot--even as an adult. There was plenty of information in it that was new or that I had forgotten I'd known. Age appropriateness would depend a lot on your students. I know that plenty of folks cover the topics in these books during the middle school years, so don't be afraid to buy the books in time for middle school. You can always save them for high school if they don't seem quite right for middle school at your house.
You know, I just looked in the publisher's catalog and they quote Genevieve Foster as saying, "Children in sixth through eighth grades [middle school] were the first audience I had in mind, believing that they were of the age to get the most value from this kind of world picture. If just before entering high school they could have an orderly pattern or framework on which to fit all the facts that they would later learn in more formal textbooks, I felt they would be spared the confusion I had suffered." So, I guess that sheds some helpful light on things! :-)
I suppose I should reiterate something mentioned in other reviews at this site: We hardly ever pick up a textbook for our history studies. I'm not saying that history textbooks don't have their uses, but I do think that they suck all the *good stuff* out of history and leave us with a bunch of often boring dates, names, and battles. I mean, all I can remember from 8th grade history class is an *Orange Crush* can hanging on the chalkboard at Super Bowl time and a silly poem that Mr. Denslow would recite so that Sloan Verdugo could leave class early. What do I remember of history? Nothing. What was my grade? An A. Yes, I really still remember that poem; I wanted to be able to leave class early, but could never figure out the answer to the poem! Drats! Anyway, I digress. History should be interesting! It doesn't have to be dreaded. The books include dates and names and battles, but present it all in story form, with lots of more personal information. The stories and small anecdotes make it all much more memorable. If you usually use traditional history textbooks, it may take a little work to incorporate these books into your curriculum, but I think it could definitely be worth it. These books are interesting and cover the time periods well.
There are some year-long history study guides available that provide direction for homeschoolers who want to use Genevieve Foster's books as part of their history program. Augustus Caesar's World is included as one of many living books in a year-long program found in Ancient History Guide (review). The Beautiful Feet Books Medieval Guide (review) contains study notes for The World of Columbus and Sons as well as a number of other living books. Lastly, four of Genevieve Foster's "World" books are included in a year-long study of Early American and World History for the Jr. High school student. If you've always used traditional textbooks for history class, it might be somewhat of a novelty to try something new for your history class.
I read half of George Washington's World aloud to my kids. However, I think I should have read it before I read any other books on the mid- to late-1700s. I was also reading (and had read) a couple of other books (Marrin's book on the French and Indian War and others) aloud to them at the same time, and so Foster's book on George Washington was too much of a rehash. That got us started out on a wrong foot and things went downhill from there concerning George Washington's World. My younger child, who was about 11 at the time, couldn't keep people straight in her head. I probably should have copied the pictures (Figure 2) that are at the beginning of each of the six parts in this book and made some sort of chart or map with the people in their own countries. Or maybe I could have just let her color in copies of the pages (Figure 2) with pics to color on while I read. What really hindered us is that Foster will mention someone (teaching about him/her for a few pages) in Part I and then not again in Part III. (see the listings below of people and page numbers) My daughter, who initially met James Watt on pages 50-53, could barely remember him by the time we arrived on page 113. I tried to jog her memory by having her older brother narrate what had happened about 60 pages ago, but she still couldn't remember enough for us to go on. So I would re-read the pages 50-53 about James Watt and then go back to page 113 and commence reading there. This happened a few other times also. This was a little bit frustrating for all of us. So we quit reading Foster's George Washington book and stuck with our other books. I'm sure that there are many 11 year olds that wouldn't have this problem, but there are likely quite a few 4th graders who would. So, while the horizontal history method is very creative, there does need to be a certain level of of maturity reached. A large map with distinctive figures would also help fuzzy memories.
To be quite frank, I do think that George Washington's World jumps around a lot more than Augustus Caesar's World. It was even difficult for me to keep track of a few of the people's childhoods separate in my mind. I think there are a lot of people to keep track of in George Washington's World; more than Augustus Caesar's World, anyway, or at least it seems like it.
Here's a list of most of the people and the page numbers they're mentioned on so that you can see that there are many people to keep track of and that quite a few pages pass by before you get back to that person again. From George Washington's World, Parts 1 - 3.
Daniel
Boone: 10-12
John
Adams: 12-14
John
Hancock: 15-18
Benjamin
West: 18-20
Benjamin
Franklin: 21-25
Fray
Junipero Serra: 28-30
Frederick
of Prussia: 31-33
Maria
Theresa: 33
Johannes
Sebastian Bach: 34
Catherine
of Russia: 35-37
Louis
XV: 38-40
Pierre
Caron: 41-44
Voltaire:
45-47
James
Cook: 48-50
James
Watt: 50-53
William
Pitt: 54
George
II and III: 55
Benjamin
Franklin: 56-58
Ch'ien
Lung: 63-66
India:
67-68
French
& Indian War: 69-76
Seven
Years' War: 77-78 (mentions Frederick,
Louis XV, Maria Theresa, George II)
William
Pitt: 79-82 (Wolfe and Montcalm, also)
Pontiac:
83-84
George
III: 85-86
Thomas
Jefferson: 89-92
Seven
Years' War: 93-95 (mentions Pitt, Frederick,
Louis XV, Maria Theresa, George II)
Goethe:
95-98
Catherine
of Russia: 98-101
Voltaire:
102-104
Captain
Cook: 109-112
Antoine
Lavoisier: 112
James
Watt: 113-115 (mentioning Catherine)
George
III: 116- 123 (mentioning Benjamin West,
Pitt, Franklin, Stamp Act)
Frederick:
124-125
Louis
XV: 125-126
Marie
Antoinette: 127-130 (mentioning Maria
Theresa, Mozart)
La
Fayette: 131-134
Mozart:
135-137
Carlos
III and Goya: 138
Mustapha
III of Ottoman Empire: 140-141
Poland
divided by Maria Theresa, Catherine, Federick: 141-142
Napoleon:
143
Catherine
and Mustapha war: 144-145
Catherine
and Chien Lung: 146
Japan:
147-149
Dutch
and George III of England: 150
Alexander
Hamilton: 151-153
John
Paul Jones: 153-155
Fray
Junipero Serra and Carlos III: 155-158
Daniel
Boone: 159-161
John
Hancock: 162-166 (mentioning John Adams)
George
III: 167-169 (mentioning John Adams,
Alexander Hamilton)
Bunker
Hill: 170-171
John Adams: 172-173 (mentioning Hancock, Adams, Franklin)
While these books are entitled "World" and claim to be world histories, they actually cover more closely what would be covered in a study of western civilization. While a little bit of information is included about Africa, Asia, and South America, these books do spend most of their time on historical issues that occurred in the United States and Europe. One aspect that makes these books special is that they take people that are important to the United States and then show what was going on around the world (mostly Europe). These books do take the student's historical focus off of the United States and help put US heroes in the context of what was happening in the rest of the world at the same time they were alive. Too often US history is taught in a vacuum; these books put that problem to rest.
As award winners (Abraham Lincoln's World and George Washington's World), these books have been enjoyed by generations of young folk. I'm very thankful that Beautiful Feet Books has republished these incomparable gems by Genevieve Foster. For us, while not perfect, are they type of book we look for when searching out history books. They lay a framework like no other single-volume works out there can do. If you are a homeschooler that favors living books, I don't see how you could neglect to have at least a couple of Genevieve Foster's "World" books in your children's hands. They really are that good.
So, I guess that's about it. If you're still not sure about buying these books, do go to your library and see if they have the older books on their shelves. Libraries have been pulling these books off their shelves because they are falling apart from age, they aren't colorful and flashy, and they are somewhat dated. However, some libraries do still have some of them. Do check them out!
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Genevieve Foster also wrote a book in this series; it's about William Penn, entitled, I believe, The World of William Penn
covers
1451 - 1539
in 406
pages
covers
???? - 1865
(I
don't own this book.)
covers
1740 - 1799
in 348
pages
covers
1580 - 1631
in 406
pages
Figure
1
(real
size would be 20" across if open flat and 7.5" tall)
Figure
2
(I've
heard some people make copies of these pages in their book, color them,
and then put them on their homeschooling timeline)
Check
copyright laws at
US
Copyright Office
if
wondering about legalities, or CETUS's Fair Use page.
2-page spread (Fig. 2) items found in The World of Columbus and Sons
- Isabella of Castile
- Gutenberg
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Wars of the Roses
- 100 Years War
- Louis XI
- Henry Tudor
- Richard III
- Edward IV
- Lorenzo de Medici
- Mohammed II
- Ferdinand of Aragon
- Francesco Sforza
- Cosimo de Medici
- Nomi Mansa
- Prince Henry
- Ivan III
- Ferdinand and Isabella
- Diego Columbus
- Muley Hussan
- William Caxton
- Henry VII
- Emperor Maximilian
- John II
- Bartholomew Dias
- Queen Isabella
- Martin Luther
- Ferdinand Columbus
- Michelangelo
- Henry VIII
- Baber
- Lorenzo de Medici
- Boabdil
- Bajazet
- Martin Behaim
- Nuremberg Chronicle
- Pope Alexander VI
- Columbus
- Savonarola
- Ferdinand (son)
- Juana
- Machiavelli
- Erasmus
- Thomas More
- Michelangelo
- Holbein
- Raphael
- Charles I
- Charles V
- Henry VIII
- Francis
- Pope Leo X
- Magellan
- Charles V
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