The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child; Volume 1: Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor

The Story of the World #1

by Susan Wise Bauer

This read-aloud series is designed for parents to share with elementary-school children. Enjoy it together and introduce your child to the marvelous story of the world's civilizations. Now more than ever, other cultures are affecting our everyday livesand our children need to learn about the other countries of the world and their history. Susan Wise Bauer has provided a captivating guide to the history of other lands. Written in an engaging, straightforward manner, The Story of the History for the Classical Child, Volume 1: Ancient Times weaves world history into a story book format. What terrible secret was buried in Shi Huangdi's tomb? Did nomads like lizard stew? What happened to Anansi the Spider in the Village of the Plantains? And how did a six-year-old become the last emperor of Rome? The Story of the World covers the sweep of human history from ancient times until the present. Africa, China, Europe, the Americasfind our what happened all around the world in long-ago times. Designed as a read-aloud project for parents and children to share together, The Story of the World includes each continent and major people group. Volume 1: Ancient Times is the first of a four-volume series and covers the major historical events in the years BCE 500 to 400 CE, as well as including maps, illustrations, and tales from each culture.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Education, Childrens, School, Historical, Ancient History

336 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2001

About the author

Susan Wise Bauer is an American author, English instructor of writing and American literature at The College of William and Mary, and founder of Well-Trained Mind Press (formerly Peace Hill Press).

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unfortunately, I've survived to adulthood with an embarrassing lack of historical knowledge. Not even my liberal arts general education university classes taught me history. Now that I'm homeschooling, I needed at least a basic understanding. THIS BOOK HAS BEEN FANTASTIC FOR THAT PURPOSE. I obviously can't assess its accuracy, but my husband and I have thoroughly enjoyed the overview of all of world history and the way Bauer offers perspective and some repetition. We talk about the books frequently, and I'm thrilled that basic pieces of history, tiny little references from daily life, are finally substantive for me.

I really needed an historical framework or overview, and this simple, engaging book has been ideal for that purpose. Now, when I read other specific books, I have a context to fit them into and a way to mentally file the information. I'm excited to share this series with my son when he's ready. Actually, with all the discussion between my husband and me, he's learning and hearing a lot of it already.

[Jen Marin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this audiobook years ago with my eldest child; now it is my youngest's turn. This book does a decent job of sketching out history of the ancient world as it is usually covered in school. I found it to be a great refresher for me, and helped me to get a better picture of what happened when in the distant past.

I was disappointed somewhat, however, by the strong Judeo-Christian slant of the book. Wise does discuss the ancient histories of the Americas, of Africa, and of Asia. However, there is a distinct focus on Western Civilization, and the whole story of Jesus is taught as historical fact. Even if there was such a person who taught a wonderful doctrine of love, compassion, and forgiveness, I think that treating miracles as history hard to swallow. I found myself having to translate for my youngster- that the stories of the Bible are very similar to the stories of Osiris or Raven or Zeus. These stories tell us a lot about what a culture finds important, and how they understood the world to work. These stories are true in a mythic sense, but they are a different kind of story than the story of Julius Caeser, or Sargon, or Emperor Qin. This is a tricky distinction for a young person, and I was disappointed that the Biblical stories were treated as true whereas those from other cultures where described as myth.

This book is a good introduction to the general outline of ancient history. It is written for 1st graders, although my 5.5yo enjoyed it a lot. I think it is good to know of the bias in this book before delving in, however, so that a parent can help their children to think critically about history and the stories we tell ourselves about it.

[Cindy Rollins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written history of ancient times for young students. I love Hillyer's writing style but this stands up well to rereading too.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad for what it is, and useful for teaching 5th graders, but there are some inaccuracies and biases, and I dislike the arrangement of material. EDIT: Also used for homeschooling with my Kindergartener and 1st grader, and finished up when they were in 1st and 2nd grade. While a very useful book, there is some oversimplification (by necessity, but I would have made some different choices), and there are some flat-out errors in how things are presented, especially regarding Rome. I am a specialist in that area and so was easily able to detect and correct for errors, but the average person might be presenting these errors to their children as facts. And I wonder if there might be more errors I can't spot in the sections about cultures with which I am less familiar (e.g. ancient India or ancient China). That said, this really is a very useful series of books, and so far, its usefulness outweighs my concerns.

[Bob · Rating 1 out of 5]

History of the world using the Bible as a principle source material and even then don't get the myths straight. 10 plagues of Egypt, only discuss 3 and skip the last one that sets up a major Jewish rite, Passover.
Maybe if homeschooling in a closed society, but a disservice to the history of the world

[Sverre · Rating 2 out of 5]

Biblical narratives are deceptively presented as representative of historical events.

[Shaun · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a homeschooler, I used this in my curriculum for my three oldest, ages 6-9ish. Written in an easy-to-read format that often includes the retelling of myths and stories of the time, I found it to be a great introduction to the ancient civilizations.

The writing is actually quite good for a text and the stories and the overall content is broken down by various cultures as opposed to a time line format. As a result, it can get a little confusing since you are sometimes moving backwards and forwards in time, but overall, for younger ages this serves as a great intro to future, more detailed studies.

Topics covered include the nomads, Egyptians, Sumerians, early Jews, Babylonians, Assyrians, Ancient China, Ancient Africa, the Exodus, Phoenicians, early Greeks, Medes and Persians, Sparta and Athens, the Romans, Aryans of India, early Christians, and the Barbarians, as well as other related topics.

We also started Volume 2 which picks up seamlessly with the this first volume.

If you use a more literature based approach to education and have younger children, you will probably find this to be a useful resource.

[JenniferAustin · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I first picked this book up, many years ago, my response was mildly positive. After going through the entire curriculum with a child, I have revised my review upward. Using this series as designed, we had a fabulous time walking through world history over the course of several years. For any homeschool parent, I would strongly recommend the accompanying activity books, such as The Story of the World: Activity Book One: Ancient Times. The activity books offer a huge variety of activities and resources, and we had a blast with all that. With this foundation, my student went on to excel at AP and community college classes, and commented that our deep dive into history in elementary school had been invaluable. The Story of the World books are four of just a few textbooks that our student specifically requested that we keep.

[Margaret Gipson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Listened to the audiobook on a road trip and my kids (ages 6 and 8) were riveted, as was I. This book far exceeded my expectations. I loved the inclusion of myths and folktales, the etymological discussions, and appreciated the general assumption that early elementary aged kids will find ancient history fascinating.

I’d say this has a pretty clear Judeo-Christian bias and treats Hebrew scriptures as historical fact in a completely un-nuanced way, but it never speaks ill of other traditions and also covers the beginnings of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Hinduism. My daughter was hoping for more history of North or South America, but apparently there’s more of that coming in volume two, which my kids are already pestering me to get with my next audible credit.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is, at least, the fourth time I have finished reading this history book to my children. The Story of the World series is overall excellent. Will you find something to dislike or disagree with? Maybe, but overall it’s well-written where both children and adults can learn, enjoy, and appreciate the “story of the world.”

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great ancient history curriculum for elementary (and early middle school) homeschool. I appreciated that it was overall from a Biblical world view, but without preaching Christianity through all of the lessons. A good overall context of many different country and regions in ancient history. Comes with great resources as well.

[Arzu · Rating 3 out of 5]

genel çerçeve çizmesi açısından iyi.. okuması kolay ve keyifli..
tarih ve hikayelere ilgisi olan +10 yaş için güzel kaynak..

[Lekeshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

We listened to the audiobook every time we had to go into town. We enjoyed the overview of history. We are looking forward to listening to vol. 2.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a good overview of history. She makes it come alive. From Hammurabi to the Fall of Rome, my 8 year old boys were hooked.

[Joy L · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to read this aloud to my daughter for her first grade homework, but I enjoyed it and learned some things as well. Now she enjoys listening to the archeology podcasts I listen to because of the basic ancient history explained in this book too.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

We listened to this audiobook (Henry’s summer reading for school) and really enjoyed it!

[Dylan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trying to find history textbooks that are written in an accessible way for students is difficult. "Simplifying" history means that a lot of nuance is left out, and as a teacher it is up to you to critically engage with the texts you use and supplement that nuance for your students. This book is certainly accessible and has some value for teachers, but its scope is limited and in its simplification of history it misses out on many of the darker overtones that kids need to be able to grasp. Furthermore, any history text that tries to fit 4000 years of history into 300 pages is going to leave some things out in favour of others, and sometimes these decisions aren't necessarily the ones I would have made.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

We used this for our history curriculum for our first year of homeschool. I cannot say enough good things about this. History has become our favorite subject. My son read it again on his own. Susan Wise Bauer wrote it in a story form that keeps the young readers attention and pulls them back into ancient times. My son was so excited to move on to volume 2 that over the first week of the summer he devoured it as well. I recommend this series to everyone, not just home schoolers.

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

We have been slowly reading this aloud as a family during the academic year since we are studying ancient history in cycle 1 of classical conversations and it has perfectly aligned and added some flesh to our history studies. It’s interesting and my kids really enjoyed listening. Although, if you have boys, they might play gladiator on the trampoline and knock out some teeth. Speaking from experience here.

[Bambi Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second time using Story of the World volume 1 in our homeschool. Such an engaging, interesting, humorous (and often sad) re-telling of ancient history. The older listeners (13 &11) were able to connect lots of dots between SOTW, some of their own prior reading (especially of the Greeks and Romans), and our studies of the Old Testament. Really cool.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our "text book" this year.

A well written, charming account of ancient history that kept my children's attention all the way through. For a textbook type book, this series really can't be beaten.

[Natalie Nimmers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reread summer 2024 - the activity book was a wonderful addition. The maps brought everything together.

I enjoyed this one! I’m looking forward to reading it with the kids during cycle one of CC. I appreciated how the author reinforced the history with stories and interesting facts.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

We love this set of history books, and the corresponding activity guides. A wonderful way to learn history! I highly recommend them!

Second time through, with my younger son.

[Naomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Listened to these as an audio book and my sons loved them. Great refresher in ancient history for me too. Our favorites were the first emperor of China and Julius Caesar.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

We tried to listen to it on audio a few years ago but the kids weren't fans. Decided to try again and they now love it! #JimDaleCanReadToMeAllDay

[Jeanette · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent refresher on Ancient History!

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read as half of my children’s history text for this year. Very readable and does a good job of identifying certain themes and repeating trends in history and the rise and fall of civilizations.

[Meredith Nunley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so incredibly interesting to me!

[Anthony Chang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you enjoy reading about history? Well I do. This book called “the story of the world” is a famously known book for its educational purpose of history. The author Susan Wise Bauer is in my opinion, a very talented author. This book is about the ancient times/the BC/ the BCE. BC stands for Before Christ and AD stands for Anno Domini. This book talks about Shi Huangdi, a ruler in the BC and all about the ancient time, such as Rome, Greek and even Ancient china, America and also the religions and how they started. I have learned millions of new things and I think you would really enjoy it too. They talk about wars like the civil war, the Britain war and so on. They even have a god that you might be familiar with. Jesus Christ, Zeus, Athena and more. If you want to find out more about the history, Read this book

[Katie Killingsworth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this with my kids with our Sonlight curriculum. It was a nice overview of ancient times.