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help assessing book "The Awakening of Europe"
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Hello All,
I am looking at getting a book for next year called “The Awakening of Europe” by M.B. Synge. It should work as a spine for covering the Ren. and Ref. time period for our family studies of that time. Kids are 11, 9 and 7.
The only two reviews I see on it, though, are not good. The one says that it gave an inaccurate legend about Holland as though it were fact and a part of their history in the first chapter. Has anyone used this? Can anyone give me any thoughts on this resource? Obviously, if it is not a reliable source for history, I don’t want it. I am looking for something other than Famous Men of the Ren. and Ref. but that is not as long as the revised Guerber book. I had thought this might be it until I read the reviews! AARRGG!
-Miranda
I can’t give you a review, but you can see the entire text here:
http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=synge&book=awakening&story=_contents
My kids really enjoyed a book called Courage and Conviction. You can see it here:
Blessings,
Heather
I looked at a Synge book for ancients and didn’t care for it. It went through several Bible stories, but completely left out God. Seriously, how can you possibly write about Abraham, Joseph, and Moses without one mention of God?
I have the Yesterday’s Classics collection, which contains several of his books. I don’t think we’ll be using any of them. Neither I nor my girls cared for the one book of Synge’s that we read… can’t remember which one, though. I stopped reading it part way through.
Well, I guess I will keep looking. I have not heard anyone actually like it or recommend this book yet. I read through parts of it online and the text didn’t seem offensive at all but I just don’t know enough to be able to know if it gives a truly accurate history.
It had been suggested that I look into using the book The world of Columbus and Sons as a history spine of the Ren. and Ref. it does look like it covers a lot but I am still unsure if it covers enough years to be able to actually use it as a spine. I was already planning on using it for our studies but I am not sure if I should get it to do the job of spine. Any thoughts on this one?
I appreciate the feedback
-miranda
I can’t speak to the above book, but why not use Guerber’s Renaissance and Reformation (the updated one) and Columbus and Sons? Though from a distinctly Protestant POV, Guerber wrote good stuff and the Geraldine Foster materials are excellent for the world history parallel effect (which I love).
Columbus…may be too much for teh 7 yr. old, but the Guerber one is great for teh 9 and 11 yr. olds. with the 7 yr. old tagging along.
Another option being SOTW.
Hi Rachel, I actually like the Guerber books a lot. I liked the original versions better than the revised one that I have used for the middle ages. The ONLY problem was that it was so long we had trouble fitting everything else in that we wanted to do as well. It sort of seemed to take over in a way. So I was looking for something a little shorter or not as detailed so that we could fit in all these other great resources without feeling like it was to much.
My husband says that we would need to cut back the Guerber book in order to use it as our spine and still do all of these others as well. So, I just thought I would see if there was something else that would work “as is” for our spine.
Thank you for the input.
-Miranda
Veritas Press has a new history series called Pages of History. I have not seen them but they might be worth looking into. Everything I have ever used from them has been wonderful.
I find that history makes more sense as I study ancient civilizations if it is a comprehensive story. The Famous Men work for me as wonderful add-ons to the comprehensive histories. I personally don’t mind the Guerber books as they give a fairly comprehensive history without being overly detailed.You might look at The Story of Europe by Marshall and see if it would fit your needs, though I think it might be too long, too.
This is a link to the Heritage History Christian Europe Collection of ebooks. I link to it because it has links to 68 books about this time. It has several spines available besides the Synge book. I have not read any of them, but have experiences with two of the authors.
As mentioned, Synge did tell Bible stories as the earliest recorded history but totally left out God. That was wierd for me. =) He covered the entire Ancient Greek history in about 18 short 2-5 minute chapters. There are not many descriptive passages in the book I read.
We listened to an Eva March Tappan book recently. She is also short, but seems to give a few more details and make it more story-line interesting. Her book would probably include more chapters but not be overwhelming.
In lieu of the Guerber or Marhsall book, I would choose the Tappan over the Synge based on our personal experience. Here is the list of alternative books to check out:
Old Time Tales
Famous Men of the Middle Ages
Page-Esquire-Knight
The Story of the Middle Ages
When Knights Were Bold (Tappan)
European Hero Stories
Story of Europe (Marshall)
Awakening of Europe (Synge)
Discovery of New Worlds
Barbarian and Noble
Patriots and Tyrants
http://www.heritage-history.com/www/heritage-store.php?pid=hcl_hcl_christian-europe_1 – all the above mentioned books may be looked at and read free online with this link.
Hello,
I just wanted to thank everyone who responded to this post. It helped me out and I did make a decision and completely forgot to let you know and thank you! ooops!
after looking around some more I decided to go with the revised Guerber book by Christine Miller after all. The one for Ren and Ref. is not nearly as long as the middle ages one that we did this past year, so I think it will be alright and the writing style is the closest to what I am wanting and I trust the content to be accurate, so I am not going to try anything else after all. Thanks again for all the help!
-Miranda
I have the Yesterday’s Classics collection, which contains several of his books. I don’t think we’ll be using any of them. 
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