Copyright: 1999 Pages: 478 plus exhaustive index Size: about 8.75" x 11" x 1.55" Contributors: Jane Birch, Teresa Chris, Neil Grant, Ken Hills, Julian Holland, Palden Jenkins, Elizabeth Longley, Fiona Macdonald, Hazel Martell, Mike McGuire, Theodore Rowland-Entwhistle, Giles Sparrow Encyclopedia--that word in the title can really throw you off. Don't let it! It's not like an encyclopedia--you know, alphabetical and with entries. It's all chronological by time period. The title also doesn't tell you whether it's a "world" or "US" history book. I'm not sure why they left that out since it's important to know that this is a "world" history book. We aren't currently using this book because we just got it, but it will be taking the place of The Kingfisher Illustrated History of the World as our main world history reference book. It's a real beauty, and it should become a homeschooling standard--a position formerly held by The Kingfisher Illustrated History of the World prior to it going out of print. I'm really bummed that I didn't buy this book sooner. The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia has a great picture of Tenochtitlan. We spent quite a few hours reading a Henty about Cortes and how he conquered this city. It would have been great to have had this illustration to refer to when we were discussing the lake, the city, and the causeways that led to the city. It's the first decent illustration of Lake Texcoco that I've seen--even though we checked out plenty of books from the library! The book is full of outstanding artwork. The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia is organized in a way that makes it easy to use. After reading a few short introductory pages that explain history, archaeologists, and historians, you'll find that the book is divided up into ten chronological sections. They are: ·The Ancient
World--40,000 B.C. to 500 B.C.
Each of the above sections begins with a short introduction which is followed by a two-page spread. A map of the world is seen on this two-page spread. Each continent is highlighted, though the Middle East is shown as being its own area--separate from Europe and Asia. Each land section has a boxed summary of events and trends that happened in that land mass during that time period. The summaries are fairly good. They lay a bit of a foundation for the section that follows. These informative two-page spreads are called "At a Glance" presumably because they give the major events of each region for that particular time period. They are a nice addition and give a interesting perspective. After the "At a Glance" pages, the actual meat of each section begins. Different events of history, such as The Plains Wars, Scramble for Africa, The Opium Wars, The Balkan Wars are each discussed on two pages. Each of these two-page spreads is filled with text, maps, illustrations, or photos. It's a feast for the brain. It's nothing like those dreary, mind-numbing textbooks I used to sit and read in school. The illustrations draw you in and capture your attention and hold it hostage. While the historical events are covered more than adequately, so are the not-so-necessary snippets of cultural info like Chinese landscaping, Jane Austen, the Japanese tea ceremony, and small political cartoons. These little, seemingly trivial bits of information keep a person interested because they don't fall under the stereotypical idea of "history." Although The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia has maps on about 30% of its pages, we will be supplementing with our own world map on the wall and our globes here at home. Geography is so important and The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia's maps are small (most are around 3" x 3"), and don't show the country, geographical features, etc. against the backdrop of the whole world. Learning countries in their context is just plain necessary. Our family map is right on the wall; and as we read our history books aloud, we stop and take turns pointing on our map at the location referred to in our text. Having a laser pointer makes it a real treat for the kids. Of course, the laser pointer isn't a toy and needs to be used with caution, but it sure makes it nice to just sit on the couch and read and point and not have to get out of my comfy spot on the couch. We also use an inflatable globe. We've had a regular globe for years, but the kids' grandpa got them a subscription to a magazine and an came as a free gift. If you ever see one, pick it up--they're difficult to find; we have gotten so much use out of that inflatable globe that it's amazing. Anyway, I wouldn't depend on The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia for all your child's geography education, but then it's a history book and not a geography book. What I am particularly impressed with is that The Kingfisher Encyclopedia of History is truly a "world" history book. It covers western civilization PLUS the rest of the world. All too often Africa, Australia, and South American are forgotten when we study world history; or if not forgotten, not put in historical perspective. The Kingfisher history book puts all events from all over the world in chronological order. It's amazing to find out that the Phoenicians were trading with Britain while the Olmec culture existed in Mexico, and at the same time the Acropolis in Athens was being transformed into a temple complex. I don't see many problems with the book--it looks great, reads well. But I do think that last section--The Modern World--lacks something. I can't put my finger on it. It bothers me a little that the Korean War only got a one-paragraph mention and that the Vietnam War only got two paragraphs. I just think they needed more discussion. Apartheid got enough coverage--two pages. Yes, Man in Space should get two pages and does; the Scientific Revolution (computer age, WWW) gets two pages also. But I think that two paragraphs on the medical breakthroughs of that last 50 years is just not enough. "The Modern World" would be a difficult section to write. I wouldn't want to attempt it; I'm not even sure *what* exactly should be covered. It just feels like something is missing in this section. Possibly the section is too vague--maybe the some of the topics are too broad? Regardless, this is a minor problem when viewed against the whole book--the whole book is so very good, that it carries the last section. I'd like to suggest a book to supplement this last chapter, but none come to mind. Maybe the last section bothers me because it's difficult to really analyze history until it's really old. To say it another way, it's hard to see what all the significant events were until a lot of time has passed. Once the time has passed, we will then be able to tell which events were truly meaningful because they will have left a legacy marking their occurrence. If this is true, then the years since 1950 may be more like "current events" than "history." That's it! "The Modern World" section seems to be much more a grouping of "current events" articles than a history section. When viewed from that perspective, the section is just fine. This book is a great addition to our home schooling library. I don't think you could go wrong with it. It can be used solely for reference while reading "real books," or it could be used as the centerpiece of your history curriculum. "Versatile" is the word that comes to mind. It can be used for almost any age--grade 2 or 3 through high school. For grades 2-4, though, it would most like need to be read aloud to the student by the parent. For grades 5 and up, it could be used for independent work. We've been using the older version of this book for about 5 years now. We incorporated it into our world history curriculum a few years back and still pick it up often now that we're studying American history. Our new Kingfisher History Encyclopedia will now be taking its place as the first book we pull off the shelf when we have a history question!
Our tentative plans: The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia begs to be utilized, so once we finish our approximately three-year tour of US history, my son (then high school age) will be reading this book. He will be making a timeline book. Also, various biographies, current events articles, and other works will be read. Additionally, some projects and papers will be completed.
If you aren't a TWTM user, please skip this little section. What is TWTM? Many Well-Trained Mind (TWTM) users wonder if this new Kingfisher History Encyclopedia can be used instead of the the Kingfisher Illustrated History of the World which is the recommended text in TWTM for the logic stage. A resounding "Yes" is my answer. If you read the blue column at the right of this page, you'll see how the books differ. The lack of the running world timeline in the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia does make one of the suggested assignments in TWTM difficult. The assignment is: "The running time line at the right side of the text page [in the Kingfisher Illustrated History of the World] provides ... additional dates.... The student should put these dates on the time line as well, along with brief explanatory captions. This exercise shakes him out of absorption with a single culture and teaches him to think across country borders." The timeline that is being referred to was omitted from the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia during the revision. While the new Kingfisher History Encyclopedia does have a "Key Dates" section on many pages, these key dates pertain only to the subject at hand and do not include events from other parts of the *world.* So, if you would like to closely follow TWTM suggestions, this is a bit of an awkward problem. A quite reasonable solution is to buy a timeline book to go along as a companion to the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia. The one that I suggest is the Usborne Book of World History Dates. It contains lots of dates and info--more than enough for the assignment suggestion in TWTM. I suggest this Usborne book over The Timetables of History because the Usborne book is much more colorful and includes plenty of pictures. The Timetables of History, while an excellent resource, is too physically cumbersome and detailed to be used day after day as described in TWTM. The Usborne Book of World History Dates and the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia together are an excellent choice for those wanting to implement the suggestions in TWTM.
and Historical Fiction at Amazon
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If you
own this book, then you need to know how The Kingfisher Illustrated
History of the World (KIHW)(old) compares and contrasts with The
Kingfisher History Encyclopedia (KHE)(new). Okay, here's the
deal: the two books are quite similar. Are you familiar with that
gold section on either the right or left of each two page spread in the
KIHW? Well, that's gone. Its absence opens up a lot of space on
the page. Couple the loss of the gold side bar with a smaller font
and you've got room for a fuller and meatier text. Yes, the text
of the new book is different from the KIHW. But wait, you also need
to know that there are 305 fewer pages in the KFE, but the page size of
the new book is larger--1" wider and 5/8" longer.
As for
content ... well, I called Kingfisher Publications when I was trying to
decide whether or not to buy the KHE. The lady really tried to be
helpful. She even went and got one of the books and explained the
layout. Basically she gave this description: plenty of pictures,
chronological entries, timeline across the top, font smaller than the older
book, and fewer pages. She couldn't tell me about the content and
how it compares to the KIHW because she wasn't particularly familiar with
the content. So, I hope this comparison and contrast section here
will help you out a bit so that you can make a more informed decision as
to whether you need/want to upgrade.
I choose
the "Trade and Empires 1601 - 1707" section found in both books; I analyzed
them page by page, reading everything. Here's a couple examples of
what I mean by fuller text.
Overall,
I found the KIHW to be easier to read than the KHE; the newer book seems
to be written at a little bit higher level. Some of the newer text
uses the exact words from the older text. Often just a few words
are added here and there. At times, whole paragraphs have been added;
they help to make things clearer or give more in-depth information.
I also found that when a paragraph was added that it often gave the results
of the events under consideration. I do feel that knowing consequences
is important and am happy to see that the KHE has been written in a little
more in-depth manner.
While
a lot of the articles (listed chronologically) have a fuller text, that's
not true for all articles in the KHE. The entry on the Sun King (Louis
XIV) is shorter since quite a bit of has been left out. The Mogul
India article also has been edited, removing some information; yet other
pertinent info has been added--leaving us with a similar, possibly equivalent,
article. Overall, though, most of the articles in the KHE are longer
than the articles in the KIHW.
The table
below lists the articles in the Trade and Empires section only so that
you can see that most of the articles are still included in the newer book.
Note #1. The Oceania information is covered adequately later in The History Encyclopedia. Note #2: This info seems to be totally left out of The History Encyclopedia. It appears to be all English history. Here's something a little funny. I just compared chapter titles in The Early Middle Ages sections of both books. The missing articles that were in the old book that aren't in the new are concerning Scotland, England, New Zealand. I'm wondering if the original 1992 version of this book was a British publication and if maybe there was a overabundance of British Empire history that has been pared down a bit--it's just a guess on my part. So, let's figure out what percentage of articles that were in the KIHW have been left of out the KHE by looking at the two sections mentioned above. Out of 31 sections, 6 were left out. That's 19 percent. (I could have calculated incorrectly or miscalculated so please consider an error margin of +/-5%--do I sound official? :-) Remember that figure is based on only 2 of 10 sections) So, I suppose that about 80% of the articles included in KIHW are found in KHE. That's quite a lot and if many of the articles that were left out were mainly concerning semi-obscure English history, then I'm thinking that we still have a very good book in the KHE. Thematic essays are presented in both books, but the old book had 10 different topics and the new books only has 3: The Arts, Architecture, and Science and Technology. The KHE left out "The World" page that is at the beginning of each section. I did like this page because it showed which empires were ruling during that time frame. It looks like to me that there are more illustrations in the newer book and many were also used in the KIHW. The KHE uses the term "1500s" instead of "16th century" as the KIHW does which makes comprehesion easier. These are minor points, but they illustrate how the two books differ. So, which book is better? That's a hard call. I'm sure that some folks could disagree with my assessment, but based on this section (Trade and Empire), I have to say that The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia is probably a better package. It's just too bad they had to get rid of the timeline in the sidebar that is in the KIHW; it was pretty interesting. Sure, some of the timeline info could be considered trivial, but it fleshed out the book very well. The timeline in the KHE doesn't even compare. There are good, great, wonderful parts of both books, but I do think that the KHE is just a little bit better. If you already own a copy of The Kingfisher Illustrated History of the World and you can't decide if it would be wise to buy the KHE, I'd have to say that it's probably not necessary. I have both books, and they're just too similar to justify the cost. If, however, you plan to use the KIHW as a main World History text at the high school level, then you should probably consider upgrading to The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia. Lastly,
if you don't own either of these books, get one! We will be using
The
Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, but will definitely save our
Kingfisher
Illustrated History of the World for the golden sidebar; it's too good
to get rid of. Both books are superlative and truly belong on homeschoolers'
shelves!
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