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Product Review September 2010 |
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by Bernard Grun, Touchstone Books (Simon & Schuster), 4th Revised Edition, 2004 
I admit it. I'm addicted to books. I love curriculum fairs. Like a mother hen I gather books around me, tucking them onto my bookshelves where they are close at hand, for ready
reference.
Flipping through a homeschooling catalog one day, my eye caught a title, The Timetables of History. Being a visual learner and a sucker for timelines, I quickly added it to my order without reading the details. (Another one of my bad habits yet to be reformed.) When my package arrived in the mail, I eagerly cut the box open and unearthed my treasures. Then my jaw dropped. Thinking I was getting a graphic, fold-out timeline, I instead pulled out a thick book – as in almost 2 inches thick! I thought to myself, “Oh no, now what have I gotten myself into?” Not exactly what I was expecting! But I must admit that now I am thinking, “Someone must have been looking out for me.” I have used this reference over and over during our school year to see when the different things we are studying happened. We like to use history as the common thread in our studies. I plan everything (except math) around the historical time period we are covering. I guess at the time I opened my order I should have recognized the book's potential usefulness just by reading the subtitle: A Horizontal Linkage of People and Events. Perhaps it was the shock of the moment. Hopefully, my warning you will avoid the same reaction on your part. Even though the 835 pages look intimidating, they are easy to use (except for the weight of the book – but then that has come in handy for pressing flowers!). Across the top heading are the categories: history/politics, literature/theater, religion/philosophy/learning, visual arts, music, science/technology/growth, and daily life. The rest of the page is divided into individual years. Important events, people, and items of interest are spread across the page under the appropriate heading. In readable print, no less. The book begins with 5000 BC and runs through 2004. Over 100 of the 835 pages are devoted to an extensive index – which means you can look something up even if you don't know the date. So even though this is not the visual timeline I thought I had ordered, it has been pulled from the shelf many, many times.
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