Bill Nye booed in Texas

[Cainad (dec.)]

Suddenly, I feel very privileged to have taken AP World History, AP American History, and AP European History in high school...

I'm in the same tub, baker.
except the Europen History... huh, i don't even think that was offered separate from the World History (which was pretty much European History with little bits about non western civ)
That's definitely one thing i'm going to press hard for with my children's  education is that they have decent history taught to them.
Hell, I need to brush up.  Most of the history books I have read since high school are about specific facets of a time and place rather than an overview.
I feel the need to review the big picture so that I can place the various details properly....
Anybody got suggestions on a good World or US history "textbook"?

For a slightly spooky and very engaging take on World War II, get Human Smoke by Nicholson Baker. Srsly.

I've heard that Guns, Germs, and Steel has received some criticism, and he does come to some pretty far-reaching conclusions, but if nothing else it was good for getting me to think about history in a global context.

That's all I've got off the top of my head.

[Darth Cupcake]

Suddenly, I feel very privileged to have taken AP World History, AP American History, and AP European History in high school...

I'm in the same tub, baker.
except the Europen History... huh, i don't even think that was offered separate from the World History (which was pretty much European History with little bits about non western civ)
That's definitely one thing i'm going to press hard for with my children's  education is that they have decent history taught to them.
Hell, I need to brush up.  Most of the history books I have read since high school are about specific facets of a time and place rather than an overview.
I feel the need to review the big picture so that I can place the various details properly....
Anybody got suggestions on a good World or US history "textbook"?

We read chapters from this for a class in college: http://www.amazon.com/Human-Web-Birds-Eye-World-History/dp/0393925684/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262711485&sr=8-1

You make a good point. I really ought to go back through and read the whole thing. It was well-presented and interesting, what I read of it, and it really couldn't hurt to have at least a tenuous grasp on history.

Re: Cainad's comment... I haven't read Guns, Germs, and Steel, but I hear it's great. It's on my To Read list.

[Elder Iptuous]

Cainad,
currently reading G,G,&S, but took a break in the middle of it to read Confessions of  Economic Hitman... (coworker let me borrow it so I felt compelled)
Will get back to it shortly (reading takes so long these days.  Pretty much get all my reading during my excremeditation sessions)

[Cainad (dec.)]

I think the real value of an extensive high school history education, for me at least, is that it provides a basic imprint of history onto which I can apply more detailed information as it strikes my fancy to learn about it. I have a much better-developed sense of historical context, if not specific knowledge, than many people who didn't have the opportunities I had.


Also, LOL @ "excremeditation"

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Also, LOL @ "excremeditation"

This is a time-honored Subgenius ritual.

[LMNO]

Suddenly, I feel very privileged to have taken AP World History, AP American History, and AP European History in high school...

Cainad,
still barely knows diddly squat, but at least I had the chance

I just spent 32 years reading every history book I could find.

...Moe keeps poking Curly...

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Suddenly, I feel very privileged to have taken AP World History, AP American History, and AP European History in high school...

Cainad,
still barely knows diddly squat, but at least I had the chance

I just spent 32 years reading every history book I could find.

...Moe keeps poking Curly...

I was thinking the exact same shit.


GET OUT OF MY HEAD, ALPHAPANCE! 

(And be sure to disinfect yourself before touching your wife and/or pets.  Seriously.  There's some vile muck up in there.)

[LMNO]

I don't think I can help myself.


YOU'VE GOTTEN YOUR SUBVERSIVE FILTH INTO MY MUSICS, YOU HORRIBLE RAIN-PISSING CELESTIAL FREAK!

[Cain]

Suddenly, I feel very privileged to have taken AP World History, AP American History, and AP European History in high school...

Cainad,
still barely knows diddly squat, but at least I had the chance

I just spent 32 years reading every history book I could find.

This is the correct history learning method

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I don't think I can help myself.


YOU'VE GOTTEN YOUR SUBVERSIVE FILTH INTO MY MUSICS, YOU HORRIBLE RAIN-PISSING CELESTIAL FREAK!

YOU GOT YOUR MUSIC IN MY FILTH.

Reese's Hateshit Cups:  Good music and vile hatred brought together to make one great taste you shit blood and like it.

[Darth Cupcake]

I don't think I can help myself.


YOU'VE GOTTEN YOUR SUBVERSIVE FILTH INTO MY MUSICS, YOU HORRIBLE RAIN-PISSING CELESTIAL FREAK!

YOU GOT YOUR MUSIC IN MY FILTH.

Reese's Hateshit Cups:  Good music and vile hatred brought together to make one great taste you shit blood and like it.

Mmmmm. Schadenfreude-licious!

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Suddenly, I feel very privileged to have taken AP World History, AP American History, and AP European History in high school...

Cainad,
still barely knows diddly squat, but at least I had the chance

I just spent 32 years reading every history book I could find.

This is the correct history learning method

Problem:  Now I have a pretty good idea of what really happened, but it doesn't match up to what anyone else I talk to knows.  My old truths have been replaced by shiny new stories.

[LMNO]

Problem:  Now I have a pretty good idea of what really happened, but it doesn't match up to what anyone else I talk to knows.  My old truths have been replaced by shiny new stories.

Wecome to PD.com: Where we study the truths you've ignored.

[Shibboleet The Annihilator]

Maybe there's a generation of people who've never been exposed to the facts. I love this century

In that sense it seems like the last few millenium though.

Fixed! "All of human existence" would have also been an acceptable answer.

[Chief Uwachiquen]

Canadian history is awful and I'm glad I only had it for two years. There are downsides to living in a young, relatively peaceful country.

American history is distorted like a fun house mirror.  No, seriously.  Did you know that we won both wars with a tiny bit of help from our allies?  Also, we love to teach about the noble Native American, right up until we discovered oil in Oklahoma.  Then you never hear about them ever again.  Also, we didn't give those Indians smallpox-infected blankets, the British did.  Because the British were running things in, oh, 1820.

Actually I got pretty lucky through my schooling. In 8th grade my teacher told the class, "I'm going to teach you American History, and I need you to understand that it isn't all pretty. We have done some pretty terrible things, and I'm not going to gloss over that." We learned all kinds of things about what we did to the Native Americans. She was also specifically educated in World War Two history and taught shit at a Seminar in her spare time about the Holocaust. In tenth grade we went over World War Two again in pretty deep detail, not just the American bits; they even took us to see "Downfall" in the art theatre. And then my Eleventh Grade U.S. History teacher kind of moved past World War Two relatively quickly because he realized most of us had learned it several times and went on to talk about stuff post-WW2. We spent a pretty big section on Segregation and Jim Crow laws. Although I was kind of disappointed that all he mentioned of Reagan was the cold war and Reagonomics. I still need to do some more reading on what Reagan did.