a small victory

[wesw]

ah , my lovely daughter and her mother, and I, were have a bit of a conversation about just how lovely she is when she is being snotty....

anyway, it ended up with me and her talking about what they are learning about the puritans in school and the question she had to answer about, "whether the "separatists" (puritans) were 'selfish' or 'selfless' " she had learned a bit about how they thought the church in England was too "fancy", and I told her a bit about how the pilgrims lived and thought.

well , I took her back as far as martin luther and got into the protestant reformation a bit, and explained why the catholic church was disliked and some of its sins, and that the Methodist church was protestant too

and I explained that all the colonists were not puritans. I told her a little about Roanoke island and Jamestown and rhode island and other colonists in Massachusetts....

anyway, to the victory part...

I told her that books were the key. that she could take a history book that the teacher would take all year to teach and read it in two nights..., yes the teachers would have other stuff to teach and explain, but that she could read a hundred history books in a year if she wanted and learn so much.... I pointed to my bookshelf and said..., there are a lot of books right there with history in them

....then she said,,, (and she likes to read) yeah, but I can t do that, those kinds of books are so boring that I just blank out abd can t read them.

...so, I told her..., that all depends on the author , and I pointed out Winston churchillls 6 volume memoir of world war 2, she said ..., ithought he was just the leader of England...

I eaplained that he was an accomplished author, and a big part of saving the free world too.

she ended up asking if she could take the first one upstairs and read it.. YAY!!!

she probably doesn t have the vocabulary to understand a lot of it yet, but matybe she will get something from it, hopefully she ll start asking me the meanings of a word here and there soon, then I ll know she is hooked on history...

[BoSoxGal]

You should get her Howard Zinn's A Peoples History of the United States - I bet she would like it!

[MajGenl.Meade]

I recommend 1066 and All That, a compleat history of England from the beginning to the end of history.

Here are the final two chapters:

CHAPTER 61

The Great War
KING Edward's new policy of peace was very successful and culminated in the Great War to End War. This pacific and inevitable struggle was undertaken in the reign of His Good and memorable Majesty King George V and it was the cause of nowadays and the end of History.

Causes of the Great War
The Great War was between Germany and America and was thus fought in Belgium, one of the chief causes being the murder of the Austrian Duke of Sarajevo by a murderer in Servia.

There were many other Causes of the Great War, such as
1. German Governesses, a wave of whom penetrated Kensington in King Edward's reign and openly said that Germany ought to be top nation, and
2. The Kaiser, who sent a telegram consisting entirely of items to one of the memorable Boerwar leaders.(*)

These are now agreed to have been causes of the War though at the time the newspapers (rather conceitedly) declared that it was caused by a strip of paper.

(*)And, during a subsequent crisis, a panther to Agatiiers (a brutal act and quite contrary to the Haig Convention).

The War
The War lasted three years or the duration, the Americans being 100% victorious. At the beginning the Russians rendered great assistance to the American cause by lending their memorable steam-roller and by passing silently through England one Sunday morning before breakfast with snow on their boots. The Americans were also assisted by the Australians (AZTECS) and some Canadians, and 51 Highlanders.

The Peace to End Peace
Though there were several battles in the War, none were so terrible or costly as the Peace which was signed afterwards in the ever-memorable Chamber of Horrors at Versailles, and which was caused by the only memorable American statesmen, President Wilson and Col. White House, who insisted on a lot of Points, including

1. that England should be allowed to pay for the War: this was a Good Thing because it strengthened British (and even American) credit;

2. that the world should be made safe for democracy, i.e. anyone except pillion-riders, pedestrians, foreigners, natives, capitalists, communists, Jews, riffs, R.A.F.S., gun-men, policemen, peasants, pheasants, Chinese, etc.;

3. that there should be a great many more countries: this was a Bad Thing as it was the cause of increased geography;

4. the Freedom of the Seas: this was a Good Thing as it did not apply to Britain or America (or Switzerland);

5. that the Kaiser should be hanged: this was a Good Thing as it was abandoned, together with Mr Lloyd George, the Irish Question, etc.

CHAPTER 62

A Bad Thing
AMERICA was thus clearly top nation, and History came to a .

[wesw]

uh..., thanks, meade?

maybe I ll steer her toward A History of English Speaking Peoples , first.....

I know that it s not perfectly accurate, like your suggestion is, but baby steps, baby steps.....

[MajGenl.Meade]

Good book - History of the English Speaking Peoples. Ah, but if she reads that she'll learn nothing of the history of the US.

Not to mention the Iraq, the South Africa and such.

I suggest then you might try Richard Armour, It All Started With Columbus

He writes wrote (he's dead) in this kind of accurate fashion:

Book burning is a charming old custom, hallowed by antiquity. It has been practiced for centuries by fascists, communists, atheists, school children, rival authors, and tired librarians. Like everything of importance since the invention of the cloak and the shroud, its origins are cloaked in mystery and shrouded in secrecy. Some scholars believe that the first instance of book burning occurred in the Middle Ages, when a monk was trying to illuminate a manuscript. All agree that book burning was almost non-existent during the period when books were made of stone.

[Big RR]

Some scholars believe that the first instance of book burning occurred in the Middle Ages, when a monk was trying to illuminate a manuscript.

[dgs49]

Howard Zinn? Yeah, a teenager would find that quite profound. Hopefully she could recover later on.

I hate to say it, but YouTube is a fantastic source for learning history, provided you set aside sufficient time to actually listen to what is available. If you are concerned about slant or propaganda, there are always multiple videos available on the subject of interest.

Along with all the crackpot nonsense, there are documentaries, lectures, and commentaries that are much more "reachable" than most history texts. And let's face it, for most topics a couple of good lectures is all you really want to know about most historical places and periods (e.g., Prohibition).

The "Cliff Notes" for real life, if you use it wisely.

[wesw]

oh yeah, Wikipedia is great too. you can find all sorts of good stuff and the links to other resources at the bottom of the entries provides great sources to all sorts of scholarly stuff.

meade, I agree that learning about America is important, and if you want to really get deep into it, the history of England is important to understanding America, I think.

I doubt that she will burn right thru the ten volumes that make up, the ww2 memoir and history of English speaking peoples anytime soon., like I am prone to do from time to time, but they aren t going anywhere, and she is aware of them now...., so we ll see....

[dales]

Another source of historical significance.