12th grade living books for Economics and Government

Hi Cindy,

I came across this website that has links for all subjects that are available online. The books/subjects look interesting…maybe you can find something there. And, it appears that it is free and can be read from the computer or printed out…which definitely works for me.

http://oldfashionededucation.com

Hope this helps!

Lori S.

I can second the “Uncle Eric” series by Richard Maybury. You can read the suggested series in one year if you cover about 10 chapters per week. http://www.bluestockingpress.com/bluestocking_faq.htm (Scroll down to “What is the suggested order”) You may want to read his interview on Homeschool Christian to see where he’s coming from: http://www.homeschoolchristian.com/Reviews/Voices/Maybury.html

Clarence Carson’s Basic American Government is a very good solid government book. I don’t know if it’s living, but it is thorough and readable.

Anything about the making of the constition is good–Miracle at Philadelphia by Catherine Drinker Bowen is great.

You might consider adding something like A Familiar Exposition of the Constitution of the United States by Justice Joseph Storey, which has recently been reprinted.

Hope these ideas help! LMK if you need more ideas. My shelves are stuffed with interesting stuff! LOL But I’m naturally interested in the topic.

Michelle D

I just wanted to add that the Uncle Eric books (at least the two I have) give other suggested readings and even movies sometimes. I don’t know if you could pull together enough to consider it college bound, but I think you’d be surprised how much could be done!

David Barton of Wallbuilders is another good resource for government.

And we have the God and Government series by Gary DeMar. Don’t know if they’re living books, but definitely better than textbooks! 😛

I just finished Uncle Eric’s book on the “Thousand Year War”–in less than a day! I bought it Saturday at a small homeschool convention, and just couldn’t put it down! You’d sure learn your history, geography and economics! (With a little world religion’s history, too!)

HTH!

Trisch

I agree that the Uncle Eric books are great. All my family loves them! And adults can learn a lot.

However, having had experience with college students when I was a grad student, I can say unequivocally that I saw the most tears and frustrations from freshman economics students–this causes more stress than biology, freshman English and college algebra put together! Many colleges now require economics for most liberal arts majors, and I spent a LOT of my time teaching basic principles that should have been learned in high school. Uncle Eric is superb for “worldview” and personal economic responsibility, but when your child bops on down to Microeconomics 101 and the teacher blithely hands them a sheet of figures and asks your child to figure out at what point in the factory’s schedule diminishing returns will set in, <vbg> it’d be good to have a base in the nuts and bolts. (this happened to me in freshman economics, and I was the only student in the class out of thirty who had a clue–everyone else was wailing and moaning, lol)

Thomas Sowell’s two books I mentioned are EXCELLENT. They are easy to read, written by a foremost economist of our day, cover the basics very well, and are illuminating when you look around at our current problems. John Stossel’s program is also excellent and extremely entertaining.

This is a critically important subject, IMO. Many policy makers today have no idea at all of basic economics. All voters should know basic economic principles!

In our state recently, we had a new party take over the state legislature. They decided to raise revenue by almost doubling our tax on cigarettes, and planned to use the “extra” money for schools and other things. My dh personally talked to a state senator who just could not understand at all why the revenue from cigarette taxes did NOT double when they doubled the tax. We honestly could not get the basic principles of supply and demand through his head. He had NO IDEA that raising prices would reduce demand–he was SHOCKED. This is all too common today. He said he wished someone had told him what would happen. 🙂

Soo—by all means read Uncle Eric! But don’t stop there for the college bound.

Michelle D

I know this is a VERY old post and I assume Cindy’s dd has graduated by now! But for others, in addition to all these wonderful recommendations I’d like to direct attention to Liberty Fund Books:http://www.libertyfund.org/

If you order a paper catalog, it’s easier to wade through the titles in both Economics and History at the high school/adult level. Excellent stuff!

Rachel