Living History Books

I bought two books for Columbus Day for my 5 year old. I really love this one however it is bit advanced for us right now. It has lots of captions and very busy. It's very cute and will be fun to use in a year or two! I am glad I got it but would recommend it for a 6-8 year old. We will definitely get good use out of it in the future!

This book really got my son,7, interested in History. He remembers about every detail from it. The character animations are great! I recommend these books especially for probably 7 -10 yr old boys. I think they could get the most out of them.

When it comes to American history books for young adults, there are very few books that cover the period from the end of the Revolutionary War to the beginning of the Civil War. Sadly, the Jacksonian Age is all but ignored. Into this vacumm stepped Edwin Tunis, one of the great illustrators and authors of young adult, non-fiction books.

"The Young United States" traces the development of material culture of the country as its people pushed west from the Eastern Seaboard into the the North American interior. Tunis is fascinated by the such mundane but important things as changes in fashion, sailing ships, coaches, roads, and agricultural machinery. Fortunately, not only does Tunis write very well but his pencil illustrations are extraordinary. In my opinion, Tunis was on the great American illustrators of the Twentieth Century.

"The Young United States" is a great book and it will fascinate both adults and teenagers. For those who like his emphasis on material culture, I would also recommend that they check out the work of another American master illustrator, Eric Sloane. Any book by Edwin Tunis and Eric Sloane deserve only the highest praise.

This volume in Tunis's trilogy of social histories (the others are "Colonial Living" and "Frontier Living") focuses on an era that tends not to be as closely studied by most people as are the Revolutionary era and the 19th Century, which means that books about it are thin on the ground. But if, by some chance, it's one of your interests, "The Young United States" is a book you must definitely add to your collection. With Tunis's trademark highly detailed pen-and-ink illo's and clear, well-written commentary, it provides an excellent overview of how all levels of society lived during the 40-odd years under consideration. I found it indispensable in determining how the father of one of my fictional characters--a veteran of the War of 1812--would have grown up and what his surroundings would have been like in Federal America. Adult researchers should not fail to consult it.

I very much enjoyed this book. It is well organized, clearly and simply written and serves as a springboard for further inquiry if you are so inclined. Anders takes each area of Concern, explains and reveals christian principals ina light and anecdotal manner, gives your scriptural references and additional bibliography. You can get to the meat of the matter quickly, but if so inspired, he points you in the direction of further detail. I would say everyone out there would benefit from reading this book Christian or not. I find he reminds me very much of Norman Vincent Peale in his approach. GOOD READ!

In a chapter named Vulnerabilities, Aaron Hass quotes an unnamed Holocaust survivor who asks, "What did the world learn from the Holocaust? What the world learned from the Holocaust is that you can kill six million Jews and no one will care."

This comment like many others in this superb book reverberates to the bone.

Hass answers a need not only of the dwindling community of survivors, but of those who, while neither survivors nor children of survivors, are nevertheless heirs to horrific pain--those Jewish children born in the shadow of the Holocaust and dressed by its memories, engulfed by a pervasive sense of loss and the need to reaffirm Jewish life.

"Survivors are people, not a phenomenon," Hass writes. Their feelings endure. Given my own feelings, I suspect that these are echoed by the feelings of the Jewish people, which is only now, after a generation, beginning to comprehend the enormity of what occurred.

"To refer to the Holocaust as 'monstrous, inhuman event' is to miss the point," Hass concludes. "The Holocaust was imposed by men and women on other human beings. 'It was a time when there were people, not only the Germans, but the others too, what wanted to kill all the Jewish people."

Unfortunately, such sentiments are still published broadly in parts of the world, without note, much less consequence. The press considers them just as unimportant now as it did in the 1930s.

Hass writes, "And so most Holocaust survivors believe that it could happen again." I sadly confess, so do I. Alyssa A. Lappen

This workbook is an excellent introduction to the culture of the Inuit people of Alaska. It starts with a short description of their location, traditions, and a folk tale. This is followed by a set of stencils depicting the creatures of the Inuit mythology. They can be removed from the book and used to make trace drawings. It ends with a series of projects involving the making of traditional Inuit items.
An ideal workbook for social studies classes teaching the diversity of world cultures, I strongly recommend it for late elementary and middle schools. It can also be used by children who just want to learn more about the Inuit.

This is the only book of its kind written by an observer of the Amana Colonies during the era when the people lived under religious communism.

Mrs. Shambaugh made repeated trips to the Amanas and became a lifelong friend of the Amana people. This rare book tells of life in the Amana Colonies at the turn of the century.

The Amana people voted in 1932 to live under free enterprise, incorporating their land and businesses as the Amana Society and establishing a separate Amana Church Society. The people brought their own homes and many opened small businesses. With their traditional German family style restaurants, the Amanas today are Iowa's premier tourist attraction.

The book is the best review of the facts surrounding the beginning as well as the undertaking of The Great War also known as World War I. The pictures alone make the book oustanding, but the objectiveness of the way the material was handled make this book a must read for historical buffs and those desiring to know everything about this war. No type of mistake is covered up and no hero, including Alvin York is overlooked. The coverage of the officers from that day who became the next war's generals is superb.

This book is awesome. It's informative, accessible, and interesting. Ripper's innovative approach of presenting historical events through the stories of important people makes his textbook read more like a novel - one that I looked forward to getting back to.

Ripper brings history to life with vivid descriptions like the following: "As if heavy drinking and heavy clothes were not enough to bring the lords and ladies to their knees, at night they slept with the shutters closed, part of a medical regimen based on the notion that nighttime breezes brought swampy vapors - believed to be a major cause of disease. Unable to cool off, unable to properly sweat, they lay in their chamber tombs waiting for the morning's first drink."

The biographies pulse with life, and Ripper expertly connects them to the larger world to give us both specific images of real lives and also a general picture of current events: "John's and Abigail's early letters to each other and to their acquaintances reflect a stable world and an interest in friends, family, and local matters. The Stamp Act changed all that."

Ripper adds commentary to make us think as he portrays historical facts from unbiased angles. For example, he suggests that "Pocohontas and Smith could as easily be called a traitor and a thief as a pair of heroes... Perhaps it makes more sense not to call anyone a hero. And maybe at its best, history can help us see events from more than one perspective. One man's friend is another man's enemy."

In giving us a broader perspective of history, Ripper presents the stories of women and minorities as much as the well-known white guys we've all heard of. As he says, "Without [Abigail Adams] and her American sisters, there would be no United States."

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn history by reading stories about the people who made this country what it is today.

This book, and the others in the series are excellent material to supplement a study of ancient cultures. Actors dressed in period costumes reinact scenes set in authentic locations, to provide glimpes of daily life in ancient times. The photographs are vivid, and the book provides helpful information. A must for home-schoolers and children interested in ancient cultures!!

For seven hundred years, Morocco and Spain were politically, culturally and economically inter-connected. This close relationship was severed in 1492, when the Spanish monarchs expelled Spain's large Jewish and Muslim minorities. Many of the refugees fled to neighboring Morocco where they brought with them their rich artistic traditions. "Andulisian Morocco" endeavors to show the living legacy of those refugees which still can be seen in Morocco.

The core of this book are eight travel itineraries through Morocco. Unlike most travel guides, this one is written by Moroccan art historians who provide suggested architectural routes through Meknes, Fez, Chefchaouen, Tetouan and the ports that line the Straits of Gibraltar. This book is a must for anyone who wants to understand the deep cultural ties that bind not only Morocco to Spain but that which connects the entire Mediterranean world.

"Andalusian Morocco" is one volume in an eleven volume series entitled "Islamic Art in the Mediterranean". These volumes are published by a Museum With No Frontiers a unique multi-national cooperative which examines the cultural ties that bind Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. These is the first volume in the series that I have read and I will definitely purchase additional volumes.