I agree that the stories are the best way to teach history to children. Children like to identify with heroes and heroines, and emulate them, as part of growing up. I like giving them somebody worthy to emulate. It was important to me when I was a child, too.
And now that I am grown up, I still like reading stories about historical events, and learn how to live from reading how people lived in the past, and strive to emulate great men and women. I keep touting Plutarch as an excellent source of such history, and you like Barbara Tuchman, whom I like, also.
But my very favorite books have not been about people. Oranges, by John McPhee, the history of oranges. Plants, Man and Life, the history of agriculture, especially grains like maize and rice and wheat. Rats, Lice, and History, the history of disease. The History of Manners, by Norbert Elias, topic eponymous. And so on. I have a weakness for books like that, and am always hopeful for suggestions. |
