New Homeschool History Text

Posted by Greg Laden on March 26, 2008
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Anne Coulter sends me emails now and then (she doesn’t know who I am … don’t tell her) so I get the inside anorexia, I mean, the inside skinny on some of the moves the hard right wing are making now and then. Astonishingly, very little of this is ever of any interest. But the latest tidbit is somewhat interesting. The righties are creaming in their jeans about the republication (which actually happened last year) of Sebastian Adams’ “time line of history.”


This document from the 1870s is historically interesting because it is one of the early “time lines” and it does reflect what some (… some…) people thought at the time of human history. It begins with Adam and Eve back around 4004 BC, following Ussher’s chronology.

Obviously the document is outdated as an actual historical time line but is a quaint and interesting historic document. Or is it?

No, actually, this is a history book recommended for the Christian Home School setting. From one web site that sells it:

A vintage reproduction of this illustrated time line of earth history. The foldout chart features detailed, full-color drawings of various stages of history, from Adam and Eve to the late 19th century, with handwritten commentary throughout. Perfect for homeschool settings or Sunday school walls, it includes the descriptive booklet that was originally published with the chart in 1871. Follows James Ussher’s time line from The Annals of the World.

This is what Christian home schoolers use for their history textbook.

Here’s what it looks like:
Adam’s Chart of History: A Chronology of Ancient, Modern, and Biblical History-Timeline

i-7bda22c498f4187ce3daa2a6e1a6838d-adams.gif

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Comments

  1. #1 Jeff Knapp
    March 26, 2008

    It looks like a beautiful work of art/illustration – kind of like something one would make for a sci-fi or fantasy movie to be used as set dressing or on-screen graphics or something. At least there, nobody pretends it is real (well, the actors have to when performing); everyone knows it is just set dressing. Good illustrators and commercial artists (sometimes) get paid big bucks to create illustrations such as this – sometimes even with accurate information…

    Seems to me, some people need to be re-educated on what is real and what is make-believe – those that teach this crap to the kids that is.

    *walks away slowly wagging head in utter despair*

  2. #2 Aaron Golas
    March 26, 2008

    At least that looks more artistic than “America’s Providential History.”

  3. #3 Caveat
    March 26, 2008

    Neato, I’d like one of those. I’ll bet it’s fun to read.

    Great job getting the whole thing stitched together and blooged!

  4. #4 Pierce R. Butler
    March 26, 2008

    Sebastian Adams’s The Annals of the World is available in paperback for only $29.95 from rightvleftalerts.com, but the hardcover with the history chart bound in will set you back $104.95 (according to the offer I received).

    The same enterprising Christian patriots have repeatedly informed me that “The ACLU’s worst nightmare is back in Print after 140 yrs (Buy 1–We’ll Send You 2)”.

    Said nightmare has 1060 pages: Benjamin F. Morris’s The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States*, (“The Book the ACLU Does NOT Want You to Read! I Promise. I saw it happen!” — Gary DeMar, President of American Vision). Godless wretch that I am, I passed up the Weekend Super Special:
    Retail: $99.90 • Get 2 Copies for ONLY $39.95 – AND 2 CD-ROMs!

    * 2 – BONUS ITEMS AT NO COST TO YOU: Includes CD-ROM with searchable/ printable book text and REPORT refuting Liberal University of Chicago Law Professor!

  5. #5 rpenner
    March 26, 2008

    Is it complete with Blacks = Hamites?

    1861, Scientific American praised it, or so I am told.

    [Adams' great-great-great granddaughter, Margo Cash] says one of her favorite parts of the scroll is in the exhibit’s third panel, which has five images depicting the “Races of Men” – from “Negro or African,” to “European or Caucasian,” to “Malay” and “Indian or American” and “Chinese or Mongolian.”
    …
    Cash points to an image under the “past” of a woman trying to sew by candlelight next to the words, “The hard and slow old way,” and then the “present” image of “The new and better way” – a woman happily working away at a sewing machine.

    http://www.thefreelibrary.com/A+scroll+through+history.-a0168860357 September 16, 2007 The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR)

  6. #6 Greg Laden
    March 26, 2008

    Pierce: Or you can get the repro of the original Adams book for Amazon (I give a link) and avoid the rest of the crap.

    I’d love to get an original, but I think they’ve all been scarfed up by the home schoolers.

  7. #7 Tommykey
    March 26, 2008

    And check out the fawning reviews at the Amazon.com link!

  8. #8 Anne Gilbert
    March 27, 2008

    Actually, some of those old books are very interesting to look at. The illustration above is the “interesting” part. But they can also be unintentionally funny! Because the way they present history is so very. . . .for lack of a better word. . . .old-fashioned!
    Anne G

  9. #9 mark
    March 27, 2008

    About a year ago, the Anals of the World (our friends at WingNut Daily) announced new research regarding the age of the Earth–publication of a facsimile of Ussher’s Annals of the World. Their news item was, of course, merely an advertisement. At Answers to Genesis there was an offer to send a copy of this book to anyone who donated $350 to the Flintstone Museum in Kentucky.

  10. #10 Crimson Wife
    March 27, 2008

    Shouldn’t you be qualifying your last statement since only *SOME* Christian homeschoolers use this particular book as their history text?

    I know lots of Christian homeschoolers and I’ve never heard this particular book recommended before by *ANY* of them.

    We’re Christian homeschoolers, and we started our study of history by discussing hominid evolution. My DD could tell you more about the various early hominids than I could when I *GRADUATED* a highly-rated public high school…

  11. #11 the real cmf
    March 28, 2008

    Crimson: I thought Christians worshiped sexual repression and dollar billz,whilst Catholics worshiped Mary, and fertility icons?