9 Good Books About History Any High School Student Should Read

I am worried by how little the young people with whom I am acquainted know about the past, even my own sons.  This lack of knowledge has been demonstrated recently as people in the United States have been busy taking down statues of the U.S. Presidents, early explorers, and Civil War generals., and unfairly criticizing Catholic missionaries (They can be fairly criticized for other things.),  Just a few ays ago the school board in San Francisco decided to cover up some 80 year old murals that have become a casus belli for the mis-educated.   The murals were painted by a communist-leaning painter who's work was a criticism of westward expansion, slavery, and the idolization of George Washington  but some modern viewers think the work is doing the opposite; glorifying slavery, westward expansion, and George Washington.  This is just craziness.  It is as though these removers of statues, paintings, and street names have never read what Moses wrote about Noah: He was righteous in his generation.  From our modern point of view he was a drunk.  But he was the best it was possible for a man to be in his generation. I doubt that you or I would have been as righteous had we been his contemporaries.  Yet, the statue removers are judging Presidents and explorers by todays societal norms. (Not to be confused with God's unalterable Law.  That never changes and we are all violators of it.)

 To help with this situation I have put together a list of books that will relate facts of history, show how historians do their work, and also demonstrate why history is important.  The list covers several different countries, different kinds of events, and different times.  It is in no particular order.

1.  The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision by Henry Kamen.  This British author mines the written accounts of people who lived through the Inquisition.

2.  The Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era by James McPherson.  What caused the civil war?  Why was it necessary?  How did some of the people who fought the war think about it?

3. The Old West.  This series of books tells the stories of the American West, which is are the stories of the making of modern America. (As a Californian I might be biased.)  Of all the books I am recommending the volumes of this set are the only ones that, I think, might be a stretch for high school students;  they assume a lot of prior knowledge, and the writing style of some of the essays is pretty dry.  But I am including them because they cover so many different experiences and a lot of different points of view.

4.  The Histories by Herodotus.  The first book that we can think of as a modern history.   It tells the history of events that happened in living memory, discloses sources, and expresses the doubts the author has about his sources, ("that's what they say but I don't believe them.").  Interestingly, this book explained not only why the Persians lost when they waged war on the Greeks but also foretold why the Germans would lose both World Wars.

5. A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War by Victor Davis Hansen.  Lately, Hansen, who is a fellow at the Hoover Institution, has become a political columnist but this book is not like his columns, it is history based on all the primary sources; of course, Thucydides, but also Andocides, Aristophanes, and Plato. It is eminently readable.

6.  A Child's History of the World by V.M. Hillyer  might seem old and out of date at first (it was published in the 1920s), and it does not always agree with what the Bible says about certain ancient events, and it says more about prehistory than a history book should.  Nevertheless, it is a vey good survey of all the important events on the globe up to the beginning of the 20th century.

7.  Adams'  Synchronological Chart or Map of History by Spencer Adams can best be thought of a a graphic representation of everything people have ever done.  It shows changes in royal dynasties, church councils, the emergence of new nations, the decline of old nations, the line from Adam to Jesus, and much much more.  I can not recommend this highly enough.

8.  History of the World Map by Map is a good idea that is beautifully rendered and mostly accurate.  My own introduction to history was in the Bible and the maps in the back pages of that Bible; the Kingdoms of Judah and Israel and The Missionary Journeys of St. Paul are the names of two of the maps I can remember.  Those maps were very important in helping me understand what was printed in the text.  Later, when I was 8, my mother gave me a map of Civil War Battlefields.  I don't even think I knew what the Civll War was when she gave me the map, but on that map I saw the names Shiloh (a battle so horrible the people of that town refused to fly the American flag for 83 years), Chickamauga (27 thousand killed or seriously wounded in 3 days of fighting) , and Gettysburg (where the tide was turned) for the first time.  History, whether Biblical, American, or world happened on the surface of the Earth; and to a large degree, the features of that surface dictated the events of history. History of the World Map By Map is a set of 140 annotated maps that explain most of the major events in the story of mankind by showing where they happened.

9. A Renaissance Tapestry: The Gonzaga of Mantua by Kate Simon.  The ancient Romans taught their children the history of Rome by teaching them the histories of their own families.  Similarly, Simon teaches her readers the history of the Italian Renaissance by teaching them the history of one family who lived through it.  It is beautiful and engaging.  And proof that even in modern times,  when university professors dominate historical writing, amateurs can still write gorgeous history.

Fatherhood and the Garden

In 9 hours Anselm leaves for Camp Hi-Sierra where he will be working all summer. He is driving himself  (n the car he bought with his own money earned from working at Starbucks.) up into the mountains. I'm worried. I keep reminding myself that when I was his age (17) I had thrown hand grenades, jumped out of towers, and survived a barracks brawl. But I'm still worried about him driving into the Sierras by himself.  It seems like just yesterday I was having to correct his behavior in restaurants.  How did he get so old so fast?

In other news, I pulled out that yellow pear tomato plant.  In its place I planted 6 butternut squash seeds.  I know it's kind of late but, I think, we should be able to harvest them in the first week of November, before it gets too cold..  It will, I hope, make good soup.

A squirrel got one of the smaller pumpkins.  I wish that hawk would come back.

Also, Kathleen wanted a tomato plant in a washtub that has a couple of sunflower in it.  (Basil had planted some carrot tops in the tub back in February but when I pulled them up last week they looked like crazy misshapen mutant carrot creatures from Mars.)  So I planted a Bonnie Original.  It is about 15 inches tall and already has some flowers on it.

The Garden

Today's Harvest

A cucumber arch

The garden is going well.  We started to have some good tomato harvests.  Kathleen loves the little sun gold tomatoes.  I think she stops in the garden each morning on the way to the gymn to pick a couple.  The little yellow pear shaped tomatoes are soft and fleshy. We don't like them very much.  I'll probably use the canner Kathleen gave me at Christmas and make them into tomato sauce.  The romas taste like I imagine Italy: Rich and warm and friendly.  We have other varieties growing but I don't know what they are since that kid removed all the signs.

We have been eating yellow squash for a few days but last night a squirrel got into the plant and ate what we were going to pick today.  You'll remember that I planted several seeds but only one came up.  So a couple of days ago Kathleen and I went to a nursery to buy some green house-started summer squash plants.  They wee sold out so we bought zucchini.  We didn't have any room left in the planter boxes so we planted them in big pots.   I think I am starting to regret not planting any butternut or acorn squash this year. 

The cucumber vine survived the thrips.  Sadly, the cucumbers on the vine were shriveled and had to be composted.  But there are lots and lots of new flowers on the vine so there will be plenty of cucumbers later.  Oh!  Speaking of cucumbers:  We have been watching a British gardner named Monty Don on Netflix, and have followed his advice to "cram them in there".  So, between some of our tomato plants we planted more cucumber vines.  They came up last Saturday, and yesterday we used rebar and garden hose to make arches for them to climb. Altogether, we have 11 cucumber vines growing amongst the tomatoes in the three raised beds.  I foresee a lot of pickles in our future.  Oh, that reminds me:  The dill is taller than I am now.

The marigold seeds I planted never came up.  I'm a little bit disappointed by that.  The camomile seeds I planted around the onions sprouted but most of the seedlings died in the heat of the last three days.  Speaking of onions; Kathleen talked me into pulling one up a few days ago to see if they were ready to harvest.  It was still small, about the size of a large head of garlic.  But I used it with butter and herbs de provence to cook some squash and it was marvelous.  I do not think I have ever tasted a better onion.

We had an infestation of spider mites so last week we released 3,000 ladybugs in the garden.  They ate all the spider mites in two days and flew away to find more food.  Only one tomato plant seems to have been seriously damaged.  We caught the pests just in the nick of time.  Ladybugs might be my favorite bugs.

We haven't seen many pollinators in the garden.  A few carpenter bees.  A few wasps.  I think I've only seen 2 butterflies.  Only one honey bee.  no mason bees.  I think I might have seen one bumble bee.  It is worrisome.  Next February, I think, I'll buy a bunch of bumble bee queens and set them loose in the neighborhood.  Maybe, I can get a good population going.

The pumpkin patch is going crazy!  Its only June and we are trying to figure out what to do with the vines.  There are two vollyball-sized pumpkins and several softball sized pumpkins, and many many female flowers which, I hope, will grow into pumpkins.  It is growing in the bit of ground my youngest son and I broke up a few months ago.

The Pumpkin Patch

 The ground is mostly dense clay.  To that we added some of our compost and an ammonia & phosphate fertilizer.  I know, some people will freak out that it isn't organic, but ammonia is a naturally occurring molecule and phosphate is dug out of the ground, so I am not worried.  We also have some red onions and volunteer beets and tomatoes, growing in the patch but I think the pumpkin vines are going to take their share of the sunlight pretty soon.  None of the sunflowers I planted along the wooden fence at the back of the patch came up.

I also planted a pepper seed in one of the raised beds.  It sprouted and is now about 8 inches tall.  But I can't remember if it is bell pepper or jalapeño pepper.  Either way, I'll be happy at harvest time.