THE HISTORY OF THE MEDIEVAL WORLD


It's not often that I post about textbooks. In fact, this may only be the third time, but there's a great reason I chose this book. Susan Wise Bauer's approach to education is documented in The Well-Trained Mind, a book I read years ago when we first started thinking about homeschooling. I fell in love with the idea of a classical education and the ideas Ms. Bauer and her mother (co-author) presented. When I had the opportunity to preview The History of the Medieval World, I jumped at it.

Admittedly, this is several grade levels above my girls, as we are now working through Ms. Bauer's The Story of the World geared toward younger children, so I haven't read this book cover to cover. But I can say with assurance that the well-researched information, clear presentation, and array of maps make this a resource we will use in the future.

This is a great text for both homeschoolers and history lovers. Also, be sure to check out The Well-Trained Mind FORUM, where you will find hundreds of other committed educators/homeschoolers, and Ms. Bauer's BLOG.

Here's the official blurb:

A masterful narrative of the Middle Ages, when religion became a weapon for kings all over the world.

From the schism between Rome and Constantinople to the rise of the T’ang Dynasty, from the birth of Muhammad to the crowning of Charlemagne, this erudite book tells the fascinating, often violent story of kings, generals, and the peoples they ruled.

In her earlier work, The History of the Ancient World, Susan Wise Bauer wrote of the rise of kingship based on might. But in the years between the fourth and the twelfth centuries, rulers had to find new justification for their power, and they turned to divine truth or grace to justify political and military action. Right thus replaces might as the engine of empire.

Not just Christianity and Islam but the religions of the Persians and the Germans, and even Buddhism, are pressed into the service of the state. This phenomenon—stretching from the Americas all the way to Japan—changes religion, but it also changes the state.

BIO:

Susan Wise Bauer is the best-selling author of the Story of the World series for elementary students, author of The Well-Educated Mind, The History of the Ancient World and The History of the Medieval World, and the co-author of The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home. She is a faculty member in English at the College of William & Mary in Virginia, where she teaches writing and literature.

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