About the Book
This engaging guide to other lands weaves world history into a story-book format. Designed as a read-aloud project for parents and children to share, this book covers the major historical events of the years 1600 to 1850 on each continent with maps, illustrations, and tales from each culture. Bauer’s masterful use of the narrative arc makes reading about history a lively experience. She breathes life into historical facts and figures, creating accessible and memorable interactions with the past.
Sample Chapters
Chapter 1: A World of Empires
Imagine that you’re a world traveler in the year 1600. You’ve spent the last twenty years journeying around the world. You’ve slept in Arabian tents, European palaces, and Native American longhouses. You’ve eaten fermented fish sauce in Rome, calf’s-intestine pudding in England, sugar-coated beets in Wittenberg, and gilded boar’s head in France. You only have two teeth left (the rest fell out because of scurvy and the sugared beets), and on your last journey to Iceland, you lost three toes to frostbite. You’ve been bitten by a camel in Asia, a cobra in India, and a water moccasin in North America.
In your travels around the world, you’ve seen ... read more
Chapter 17: Russia Looks West
If English farmers and European philosophers lived in the West, and the people of Japan and China lived in the East, who lived in the middle?
The Russians!
The enormous country of Russia lay between ... read more
Chapter 20: The Imperial East
The streets of Peking, far, far to the northeast of India, are still and dark. The inn-fires are banked for the night; travelers sleep motionless in their rooms. The Forbidden Palace, the walled and secret city-within-a-city where the emperor and his royal family live, is blanketed with quiet. On the walls, the watchmen doze, standing with their backs against the red walls.
But deep inside the Forbidden Palace, the emperor’s windows glow ... read more
Chapter 32: The Opened West
An American looking east might see slums around Boston and New York. But to the west lay a much more beautiful sight: vast fields, deep forests, and soaring mountains, just waiting for American settlers.
Directly west of the original thirteen states lay the midwestern territories. After the Revolution, Britain had given the United States all of the land east of the Mississippi. The thirteen colonies, now states, had agreed to divide this land into ... read more
Table of Contents
About the Author
Susan Wise Bauer teaches at the College of William & Mary. She has published numerous books, including The Well-Trained Mind (revised, Norton, 2004) and The Well-Educated Mind (Norton, 2003). Publisher’s Weekly described The Well-Educated Mind as “a brilliant guide” and “a timeless, intelligent book.”
She lives in Virginia with her husband and four children.
About the Series
The Story of the World series is a four-volume set of history books for children in grades K - 6. The series has already won many accolades, including awards from national homeschooling magazines and a spot in Amazon.com’s “Top 10” books sold in 2003, in the Parenting and Families category.
About Peace Hill Press
We publish innovative materials for history, science, reading and writing. We give parents the tools they need to enjoy learning with their children.