British History: Observations and Assessments from Early Cultures to Today

A while back I reviewed Master Books’ World History textbook by James P. Stobaugh. My critique of that book was pretty harsh because Stobaugh based most of his book on Internet research rather than scholarly sources.  There were frequent and glaring grammatical errors as well as problems in his timeline.

Unfortunately Stobaugh’s British History textbook is little better. 

While there was a larger reference section in the back of the book, the inline citations where overwhelmingly from Britannia.com, which isn’t quite as bad as history101.com or the History of the World for Dummies like the previous book, but it certainly isn’t considered a scholarly or even an authoritative resource.  Again it was something a teacher would expect a high school student to turn in, copy and pasted from the Internet.

There were also some glaring errors.  For example on page 51, Stobaugh tells us that Christopher Columbus was “born in Genoa, Italy, in 145”.  Which would make him over a thousand years old when he sailed the ocean blue in 1492.  I’m assuming that’s a typo, but that’s why it’s vital that textbook companies edit their material before publishing it.

One of the main purposes that Stobaugh sets out to accomplish with this series is to present history in a way that glorifies God, so a lot of time is spent on looking at the reformation and its affects on Britain, but I’m surprised that a lot of the British precursors of the reformation were left out.  One huge example is John Wycliffe, who translated the Bible into English in 1382 and started the Lollard movement, which heavily influenced Martin Luther.  After his death Wycliffe was declared a heretic, and his body was exhumed, dismembered, and burned. In terms of Britain’s Protestant Christian heritage, he’s a biggy, but he’s missing from this Christian textbook.

Again I think Stobaugh’s intentions were noble, but Masterbooks should have hired an editor and a more competent historian.  I’ll repeat my earlier evaluation of World History, this sort of lackadaisical scholarship is why secularists think of Christians as country bumpkins with no education. 

What’s somewhat humorous about it all is that in the time period that Stobaugh is writing about, Christian scholars were the cream of the academic crop. 

Once again, I cannot recommend this series to anyone, much less its intended high school audience.

World History: Observations and Assessments from Creation to Today

Just to warn you in advance, I'm going to be harsh in the review that follows because I think this sort of thing is problematic for Christians today.

James P. Stobaugh’s textbook for High School students has a great premise, teaching a Biblical/God focused view of history from creation to the present.  I think if you believe in God; it’s important to look at history through His eyes and to teach that perspective to your children.  I will say that Stobaugh does a decent enough job covering major time periods and events and maybe his intentions were good, but . . .

The negatives of this history textbook far outweigh the positives and can be broken down into three major problems: accuracy, sources, and editing.

In terms of accuracy, not even secular historians can agree on the exact timelines of some of history’s major events; however often times this textbook doesn’t even line up chronologically with itself.

For example, Stobaugh gives a date of the 5^th century B.C. for Herodotus and says, “Herodotus wrote The Histories at approximately the same time that Moses was writing the Pentateuch-the first five books of the Bible” (p 80).  However only a few chapters ahead of this, he gives the dates of 630-561 B.C. for King Nebuchadnezzar, who “attacked Judah, captured Jerusalem, and deported important citizens to Babylon” (p 24).

Apparently Moses and the Pentateuch came a century after Daniel and the exile in Babylon, confusing right?

Sadly, I can’t say I’m too surprised that there are strange chronological issues like this when the book frequently cites impressive scholarly sources like www.history101.net and The Complete Idiots Guide to World History. 

Add this complete lack of academic integrity to the frequent editorial errors like calling the sections of the Roman armies “legends” instead of “legions” on page 94, and you have what appears to be a High School textbook written by high school students, who probably wouldn’t even notice the errors because they wouldn’t know any better.

Books like this only serve to perpetuate the notion that Christians who believe in God and creation are nothing but ignorant country bumpkins.  The authors have done a disservice to their younger brothers and sisters in Christ and to their God and King by not putting in the effort to deliver a quality and factual textbook all while making the claim to glorify the One who wrote history.

Do all things as unto God in this case means putting in the hard academic work of verifying your information, going to a library or two, and combing the text until all the errors are gone. 

Honestly, I was truly looking forward to reading this set of books, but now I’m dreading reading the British History and American History texts sitting on my shelf.

I cannot in good conscience recommend buying this book and giving it to your children, at least not if you intend on sending them to college at any point.

I received this book from the publisher for review.  Obviously all opinions are my own.

Unveiling the Kings of Israel

David Down’s new book released by New Leaf publishing is an archeological journey through the holy land in which we get a glimpse of biblical life excavated from the mounds of sand and time.   The main premise is that far from being a book of myths, the Bible is an amazing historical record, and each year, more archaeological discoveries continue to prove its validity and significance.

There were a lot of things that I learned from book like how Abraham most likely brought advanced mathematics from Ur to Egypt, which is why he schmoozed with pharaoh, how much water a camel drinks and how hard it would have been for Rebekah to water 10 of them for Isaac’s servant, or even how there is huge amount of written history from other cultures like the Sumerians, Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Greeks, and Romans that correlate with Biblical history (including many of the miracles.)

And as much as I learned, the academic in me was disappointed by a couple of issues that I noticed in the book: 

First David Down frequently refers to his altered timeline that goes against the currently accepted one for the Egyptian empire.  He says it’s about two hundred years different, but there is not much in terms of actual or estimated dates, like 1600 B.C.  So unless you are deeply familiar with the Egyptian Empire and the dates of all the pharaohs he references; it’s hard to get a sense of when these events are taking place.

Second, the section on the last king of Israel is pretty sparse when it comes to any references to archeological or historical evidence.  And there is a lot he could have referred to, but instead he just recounts the story.

I definitely recommend Unveiling the Kings of Israel if you’re into this sort of thing.

You can buy the book here for $19.79

I received this book free from the publisher in return for my honest opinion.

Featured Non-Profit

This December with every post till Christmas, I'm featuring a non-profit worthy of support.  You can see a complete list here.

Today’s Non-profit is the Joshua Fund

Since this post reviews a book on the Holy Land, I thought a non-profit that focuses specifically on the Holy Land would be appropriate.  The Joshua Fund was founded by Joel Rosenberg to be a blessing to Israel and the surrounding nations.  They help the poor in the area, as well as sharing the Gospel with Jews and Muslims alike.  They work almost exclusivity with local pastors, who in many cases are part of the persecuted church, especially in the Muslim nations.

You can read more about supporting the Joshua Fund here.