books I've read

Anne Hawn's books

Who Moved My Cheese?
If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans
Scientific Secrets for Self-Control
Just One Damned Thing After Another
The Vanishing
Exercises in Knitting
The Good Dream
The Very Best of Edgar Allan Poe
The Chosen
BT-Kids' Knits
Talking God
The Professor
The Christmas Files
The Finisher
Home Decor for 18-Inch Dolls: Create 10 Room Settings with Furniture and 15 Outfits with Accessories
Dracula and Other Stories
A New Song
Christy
All Quiet on the Western Front
File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents


Anne Hawn Smith's favorite books »

I'm reading 150 Books

2019 Reading Challenge
2019 Reading Challenge 19614 members
<b>Are you ready to set your 2019 reading goal?</b> This is a supportive, fun group of people looking for people just like you. Track your annual reading goal here with us, and we have challenges, group reads, and other fun ways to help keep you on pace. There will never be a specific number of books to read here or pressure to read more than you can commit to. Your goal is five? Great! You think you want to read 200? Very cool! We won't kick you out for not participating regularly, but we'll love it if you do. Join us!

Books we've read

The Help
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
The Night Circus
The Golden Compass
11/22/63
The Little Lady Agency
Catch-22
The Good Father
A Discovery of Witches
The Knife of Never Letting Go
Fahrenheit 451
Frankenstein
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
A Christmas Carol
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
The Color Purple
Matched
Cloud Atlas
The Princess Bride
The Catcher in the Rye


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Sunday, April 04, 2010

The Modern Scholar: The Medieval World I: Kingdoms, Empires, and War

The Modern Scholar: The Medieval World I: Kingdoms, Empires, and War The Modern Scholar: The Medieval World I: Kingdoms, Empires, and War by Thomas F. Madden


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
While I had to listen to sections of this book more than once, it was very good. I studied World History in High School and college, but I wish I had had a course like this. Madden is a great teacher and he wove together the events of what we used to call the "dark ages" in a way that made a lot of sense and explained a number of things that I have never been too clear on.

Since this class took in about 1,000 years of history, there was a lot left out, but the series has several courses which cover other aspects. It was interesting to note the pattern of civilization rose and fell. As a people became more cultured and prosperous, they seemed to lose discipline and military strength leaving them open to conquest by a more primitive society. The conquering society them absorbed a great deal from the former and after prospering
followed the same pattern. The course also covered the religious history of Europe, which was essentially the civil history also. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand world events today as many of the present customs and conflicts are based in this early history.

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