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Title: Around the World in a Hundred Years
ISBN: 0698116380
Author:
Jean Fritz
Publicate Date: 1998-07-20
Publish: 1998-07-20
List Price: $8.99
Average Customer Rating: 2.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $4.92
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $2.83
Amazon Merchant Price: $8.99
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| Customer Review: |
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1: How many inaccuracies are there?
I am trying to make a decision as to whether to use this book or not, for homeschool. The first time around, I was "taken" by the fun and interesting way things were presented, and appreciated the uncomfortable truths that I was not taught in school. When it spoke of "Christians" this, that, and the other - I was not so much bothered because Christians have not been perfect over the centuries. Far from it. As I read my bible, we see that some of the greatest bible heros had huge blights on their lives. But we learn from that. For example, David's affair. But we see that he was held accountable, and we see His turning back to God. We see that men fail, but God is redemptive, and Sovereign. So I am not afraid to look at the failings of Christianity, however, this book goes beyond that. In it I see overstatement, bias,and inaccuracies as a result of that bias.
I took it out of our library to re-read to my children. They were really too young last time, and are at just the right age now. I got on here and began reading some of the reviews, and looking up some of the excerpts in the book. As I began to review these excerpts, I saw them in a different light. Discomfort I can handle when it deals in truth, but this was more. I began to see gross overstatements. When I researched "Christians burning the library at Alexandria," and found that to be totally inaccurate, it cause me to question how well researched this book was. I do not want to read a book to my children and constantly wonder if it is even accurate. It seems to me that the irresponsibility comes in with the author's own bias.
The book needs to be rewritten, facts rechecked beforehand. Jean Fritz is a great writer, which is why I gave it two stars, but I don't trust her research now.
Here is a quote from another source concerning the burning of the library at Alexandria:
"So who did burn the Library of Alexandria? Unfortunately most of the writers from Plutarch (who apparently blamed Caesar) to Edward Gibbons (a staunch atheist or deist who liked very much to blame Christians and blamed Theophilus) to Bishop Gregory (who was particularly anti-Moslem, blamed Omar) all had an axe to grind and consequently must be seen as biased. Probably everyone mentioned above had some hand in destroying some part of the Library's holdings. The collection may have ebbed and flowed as some documents were destroyed and others were added. For instance, Mark Antony was supposed to have given Cleopatra over 200,000 scrolls for the Library long after Julius Caesar is accused of burning it."
and
"The real tragedy of course is not the uncertainty of knowing who to blame for the Library's destruction but that so much of ancient history, literature and learning was lost forever."
quotes by Preston Chesser.
Isn't that the point that the writer should have been making?
Now, if I wanted to use this book as an example of how people's bias dictates history, and study all of the so called "facts" outlined, that would be one thing. But my goal is to use it as the precurser to our study of U.S. History.
Will I read it to my children? Not sure yet.
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2: hatred, not history
How, in these PC days, did this book ever get published? The constant bashing of Christians isn't just offensive, it's factually incorrect in so many ways. The author belittles the great of accomplishes of many who were motivated by faith, and in general is utterly scornful of her subjects.
It's one thing to present the negative truths of history, slavery really did happen, but quite another to present it in its most brutal and ugly forms IN A CHILDREN'S BOOK.
The writer clearly has personal problems dealing with those of the Christian faith, be they living or dead, and treats her reads with a patronizing scorn as well as her subjects. I'm glad I read this before my son saw it - I try to teach him to look at BOTH sides of a story, something the author fails to do in her rush to condemn the great explorers of history. I call them great not for their treatment of human beings, but for the way they pushed human knowledge far beyond its previous boundaries.
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3: Horrible!
I wish I had read this BEFORE I gave it to my son to read! It is very anti-Christian.
For example, the author writes about wonderful advances in scientific principles and then launches into: "Then suddenly all this wondering and figuring stopped. Christianity was a new religion, fighting for survival, and in A.D. 391 Christians burned the city of Alexandria and its famous libraries, which contained, along with many ancient treasures of scholarship, the work of Ptolemy. Christians did not believe in scholarship. They thought it was sacrilegious to be curious. Anything people wanted to know, they said, could be found in the Bible."
Christians were NOT responsible for burning the city of Alexandria. It just gets worse from there on.
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4: Anti-Catholic
I haven't read more than a couple chapters but what i did read was too anti-catholic for me. We scrapped the book. Wish I hadn't wasted my money on that one!
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5: Glad I read through it before reading it to my children!
I picked this book up last week at a homeschool convention. My oldest son is very interested in history and learning about the explorers. We have enjoyed books by this author before, so I felt like it was a good buy. I can't believe how blatantly anti-Christian the author is in this book. She makes Christians sound like the wart of the world! She makes it sound like the world progressed in knowledge and achievements in spite of Christianity. Although I am no history expert, some of her statements just didn't sit well with me, and I would really question whether what she wrote is fact or just her ignorant, prejudiced opinion. I will never purchase another book by her again.
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