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World History: Patterns of Interaction By Roger B. Beck ( McDougal Littell )
Release Date: 2007-02-28
Average Customer Rating:
List Price: $105.88
Price: $73.92
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 World History Book Review
I couldn't have been more surprised or pleased to be able to purchase a brand new copy of this book at such a great price and have it arrive so quickly!
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 Selling a Message
I purchased this book to read in preparation for my CSET (California Subject Examination for Teachers) test in Social Science. It covers the standards required, but I find it lacking in many other respects. This book reads like a list of facts interjected with how cultural blending and how "such interaction has resulted in the mixing of different cultures in new and exciting ways".
Now let me preface my next statement by saying that cultural understanding, appreciation and tolerance are vital to a healthy country and people. I find world cultures fascinating, or I would not be in the field that I wish to teach in. But this book is so busy beating you over the head with the fact that you should like cultural blending (it says this phrase at least once a page for well over 1000 pages) that it sort of loses the series of events in a fog of social messages.
Cultural blending is something that happens all the time in this world, and often results out of conquest, migrations, trade, and pursuit of religious freedom - as the book points out. However, I feel they sometimes make stretches to drive their point home to the point of losing other themes of intolerance, domination and genocide (which is certainly not limited to WWII). It only gives passing mention to the butchering of people for their beliefs on a massive scale as Protestants and Catholics vied for power politically. It talks about the Shi'a Muslim Safavids and the Sunni Ottoman Turks butchering each other for their rivaling religious views but does not talk about how that may somehow have consequences in today's rift between the two groups. I'm not sure! This book is too busy telling me that the next ruler exported carpets and bought Chinese tiles and how that is cultural blending - not the consequences of 40,000 killed.
There are only shallow analyses in this book. The "consequences" or "legacies" that are so important are only addressed in the conclusions of a few units.
The chapters are organized in a thematic fashion, so it will jump continents and cultures every other unit from England to India to Africa. It also jumps around with the dates a lot as it is *not* chronological. I found it helpful when studying to make my own time lines to get a decent perspective on how things fit together.
In the second half the book, however it seems to take a completely different tone. Beginning with the Age of Exploration, the preachy quality of it dwindles and it focuses on what happened and why. Of course, European power struggles of the 1500-1700's don't really allow digression because of their convoluted nature!
So, did it serve my purpose? In some ways, yes. I will do well on my exam given that this material correlates with the standards on the test. However I would say this coverage is minimal, and if you are a high schooler reading this, this is NOT the book that will tell you whether you like history or not. This is strictly a list of facts to be regurgitated on a test with some values of tolerance sprinkled in.
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Exactly what we were expecting
We bought a new book, at 30% less cost than what the book store was selling it for. Well worth waiting 10 days or so to get it.
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World History: Patterns of Interactions ( jackierodgers71 )
Book received in excellent condition and in timely manner. I would recommend using this site to other parents buying textbooks.
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Average World History Book
World History Patterns of Interaction is a fairly good book for the basics, but the authors do not do the best at linking everything together. The pictures complements the text nicely. But the book is not geographically split into chapters it is chronological (A bit frustrating for me). The book concentrates on the details that are not of great value. There are better world history books in the market.
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