Until two years ago, my sense of history was a non-funny joke, despite the fact that I was a serious student in high school, had taken AP history classes as a teenager, and went to college on a full, academic scholarship. I could sprinkle an historical reference or two in a research paper for one of my literature or philosophy classes--like a dash of chives on top of a baked potato. However, I had no understanding of the overarching, unifying themes of world history. No sense of chronology whatsoever. When engaging in conversations with smart people about history, I occasionally had to default to the "slow-blink and knowing-smile of perfect agreement" in lieu of having any actual observations/ideas to contribute.
You will instantly forget this confession. My husband knew he could bring me
down-dooby-doo-down-down in Trivial Pursuit with a history question. Well, or a sports and leisure question. Unless it was about figure skating. I digress.
One of my primary
homeschool goals was to repair my limping, hobbled sense of world history and to keep from passing on this intellectual
gimpiness to my children. I knew I wanted to present history chronologically, looping through the "story of the world" three times between first grade and
twelfth grade, with increasing depth and scholarship.
So I bought Susan Wise Bauer's
The Story of the World series. Four textbooks presenting chronological history in a story format. I mean,
yes it is for grade school children, and
yes there are little cartoon drawings, and
yes the reader is encouraged to image she is flying around the Roman Empire on a flying carpet, but
these things not withstanding, the books are some of the most significant, life changing texts I've ever read.
I just completed
The Middle Ages: The Fall of the Roman Empire to the Rise of the Renaissance. I am relieved to finally get organized in my mind about Augustine, Justinian, Theodora,
Skandagupta, the Maori tribe, the ex-Barbarian king Clovis, Charlemagne, Eric the Red, the Battle of Hastings, the Samurai, El Cid, Richard the Lionhearted, the Diaspora, Genghis Khan, Marco Polo, Ivan the Great (and Ivan the Terrible), Henry V, the War of the Roses, the age of exploration, the
Songhay Empire, the
Moghul Dynasty, Tenochtitlan, Martin Luther, Henry VIII (and the little poem to keep the fates of his wives straight:
Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived), the Council of Trent, Copernicus, Galileo, Elizabeth, Shakespeare, Walter Raleigh, and Jacques Cartier. To name a few.
The book is interesting, easy, and written with the intention to demystify history and "make it stick" in a student's mind. Imagine my utter delight when I made a sort of blind choice to read
Salman Rushdie's
The Enchantress of Florence, only to find that the protagonist is Akbar the Great of the
Moghul Dynasty.
What? I said to myself.
Does Rushdie mean THE Akbar the Great, son of Humayan, grandson of Babur the Tiger, descendant of Genghis Khan? Akbar the philosopher-king, the just and fair ruler who, though Muslim himself, provided religious asylum for the Hindus of the empire?Oh ho ho, yes. The self-same. Even his real-life advisor,
Birbal, makes it into the book. I could pee my pants.
If you need to patch up some gaps in your history education, and would prefer a conversational, easy format with maximum results, I highly recommend
The Story of the World series by Susan Wise Bauer. Get ready to dazzle your smart friends, spank the Trivial Pursuit competition, and enjoy brainy historical fiction on a new level.
Q for you: Who is your favorite historical fiction writer? Give me some names. I'm ready to branch out.***UPDATE***I'm getting so many good recommendations for historical fiction writers worth reading, that I'm going to compile a list in a post (and link all commenting bloggers, of course) so we can browse at our leisure. Check back in later tonight for the list!
Looks like I'm supposed to tell 10 things that make me happy (other than reading, of course) and pass on the award to 10 other bloggers. 
