Showing posts with label Elementary School Social Studies/History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elementary School Social Studies/History. Show all posts

Friday, September 30, 2016

Project Gutenberg/The Story of Young Abraham Lincoln by Wayne Whipple

Written in 1915, so there will be some insensitive terminology and references by today's standards. If this is unacceptable, please skip this book. Some sections are written in colloquial English as testimony passed down to Lincoln from his relatives.

See here

Monday, January 30, 2012

Childhood in India, A Narrative for Young Children/Other

Based on a true stories, Childhood in India, A Narrative for Young Children, published in 1870. From the University of Florida Library of digitized books. Click here.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Ancient Man/Project Gutenberg

Click here.

ANCIENT MAN
THE BEGINNING
OF CIVILIZATIONS
BY HENDRIK WILLEM VAN LOON


1922.

DEDICATION To HANSJE AND WILLEM.

My darling boys,

You are twelve and eight years old. Soon you will be grown up. You will leave home and begin your own lives. I have been thinking about that day, wondering what I could do to help you. At last, I have had an idea. The best compass is a thorough understanding of the growth and the experience of the human race. Why should I not write a special history for you?

So I took my faithful Corona and five bottles of ink and a box of matches and a bale of paper and began to work upon the first volume. If all goes well there will be eight more and they will tell you what you ought to know of the last six thousand years.

But before you start to read let me explain what I intend to do.

I am not going to present you with a textbook. Neither will it be a volume of pictures. It will not even be a regular history in the accepted sense of the word.

I shall just take both of you by the hand and together we shall wander forth to explore the intricate wilderness of the bygone ages.

I shall show you mysterious rivers which seem to come from nowhere and which are doomed to reach no ultimate destination.

I shall bring you close to dangerous abysses, hidden carefully beneath a thick overgrowth of pleasant but deceiving romance.

Here and there we shall leave the beaten track to scale a solitary and lonely peak, towering high above the surrounding country.

Unless we are very lucky we shall sometimes lose ourselves in a sudden and dense fog of ignorance.

Wherever we go we must carry our warm cloak of human sympathy and understanding for vast tracts of land will prove to be a sterile desert--swept by icy storms of popular prejudice and personal greed and unless we come well prepared we shall forsake our faith in humanity and that, dear boys, would be the worst thing that could happen to any of us.

I shall not pretend to be an infallible guide. Whenever you have a chance, take counsel with other travelers who have passed along the same route before. Compare their observations with mine and if this leads you to different conclusions, I shall certainly not be angry with you.

I have never preached to you in times gone by.

I am not going to preach to you today.

You know what the world expects of you--that you shall do your share of the common task and shall do it bravely and cheerfully.

If these books can help you, so much the better.

And with all my love I dedicate these histories to you and to the boys and girls who shall keep you company on the voyage through life.

HENDRIK WILLEM VAN LOON.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

The Boy's Book of Heroes/Project Gutenberg

The Boy's Book of Heroes by Helena Peake

Contents:

HEREWARD—LAST OF THE SAXONS 1

THE CID 17

LOUIS IX., KING OF FRANCE 49

GUSTAVUS VASA, KING OF SWEDEN 82

BERTRAND DU GUESCLIN 110

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 144

THE CHEVALIER DE BAYARD 192

SIR MARTIN FROBISHER 225

SIR WALTER RALEIGH 242

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY 257


Click here.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Little Folks of North America/Project Gutenburg

Little Folks of North America, by Mary Hazelton Wade, 1909

CONTENTS:
I. Little Folks of Iceland 13
II. Little Folks of Greenland 26
III. Little Folks of Alaska 55
IV. Little Folks of Canada 80
V. Little Folks of Labrador 116
VI. Little Folks of Newfoundland 120
VII. Little Folks of the United States 128
VIII. Little Folks of Mexico 179
IX. Little Folks of Central America 206
X. Little Folks of the West Indies 214

Click here

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Indians and Pioneers: An Historical Reader for the Young/Google Books

The aim in writing for young readers these stories of "Indians and Pioneers," or "Earliest Days in America," has been to treat the history of America simply and briefly, yet with the regard for accuracy and the care in selection of material which are necessary in order to set forth the truth.

Two features in these stories are introduced, in the confident hope that they will be found both interesting and practical; one is the study of the glacial and rough stone periods, which is, of late, made more attractive and intelligible to young readers, because taught through "simplified mineralogy" and clay-modeling; the other feature is the large use of quotations [from the sources, giving the original wording and quaint spelling of the narratives of the European pioneers to America.


Title Indians and Pioneers: An Historical Reader for the Young
Authors Blanche Evans Hazard, Samuel Train Dutton
Length 266 pages

Click here.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Carpenter's geographical reader: Europe

Title Carpenter's geographical reader: Europe
Author Frank George Carpenter
Publisher American Book Co., 1912
Length 456 pages
Click here.
This book aims to give the children a plain and simple description of the countries of Europe as they are to-day. The method is by taking the little ones on a personally conducted tour over the continent. It is the children themselves who cross the Atlantic Ocean, steam over the Baltic and the Mediterranean seas and down the historic Rhine and the Danube. It is they who climb the Alps and stand on the North Cape watching the sun shine at midnight. It is they who go from city to city, from farm to farm, and factory to factory, seeing how the various peoples live and what they are doing in the work of the world. It is they who are admitted to the palaces, parliaments, and public offices where they learn how each nation is governed and something as to its civilization, commerce, and trade.

It is not intended that these travels should take the place of the school geographies, but that they should be used with such books as supplementary reading. As in the volumes describing similar tours in North America, South America, and Asia, the text-books on geography may be regarded as the skeleton and this reader as the flesh and blood which will clothe the dry bones and make the countries a living whole in the minds of the pupils.

A glance at the table of contents will give some idea of the scope and character of the work. The children, having crossed the Atlantic on one of the big ocean greyhounds, begin their tour in the United Kingdom. landing at Queenstown, they explore Ireland, visiting Cork, Killarney, Limerick, and Galway. They cross the bog lands and plains to Dublin, and thence go to the Giant's Causeway and Belfast, where they learn how linen is made. From Belfast, they sail to Glasgow, and after spending a while in the Lowlands or Industrial Scotland go to Edinburgh by the Trossachs. They make a hunting trip to the Highlands, and visit the homes of Robert Burns and Walter Scott before crossing the border to England...

Thursday, July 7, 2011


WORLD WAR STORIES BY
JOHN GILBERT THOMPSON
PRINCIPAL OF THE STATE NORMAL SCHOOL
FITCHBURG, MASS.AND INEZ BIGWOOD
INSTRUCTOR IN CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
STATE NORMAL SCHOOL FITCHBURG, MASS.
1918, by SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY


Preface:

"This volume of stories of the World War is prepared to meet this important need, and to set before the pupils the war's unparalleled deeds of heroism, with the aims and ideals which have inspired them, and which have led American youth to look upon the sacrifice of life as none too high a price to pay for the liberation of mankind.

It may be used as a reading book or as an historical reader for the upper grammar grades. While great care has been employed to secure accuracy of fact and to select material of permanent value, the stories are written in a manner that will appeal to children."

Click here.

Four American Naval Heroes Paul Jones, Admiral Farragut, Oliver H. Perry, Admiral Dewey/Project Gutenberg


Title: Four American Naval Heroes
Paul Jones, Admiral Farragut, Oliver H. Perry, Admiral Dewey

Author: Mabel Beebe

Commentator: James Baldwin

Click here.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Elementary geography: a text-book for children/Google Books


Title Elementary Geography: A Text-book for Children
King's Geographies
Author Charles Francis King
Publisher C. Scribner's Sons, 1904
Length 220 pages
Click here.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Chandra in India/Google Books


Title Chandra in India(A Geographical Reader)
Little People Everywhere
Author Etta Austin Blaisdell McDonald
Publisher Little, Brown, and Company, 1916
Length 111 pages
See here.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Broad Stripes and Bright Stars: Stories of American History /Google Books

Title Broad Stripes and Bright Stars: Stories of American History
for the Children's Hour Series
May G. Quigley collection
Author Carolyn Sherwin Bailey
Publisher Milton Bradley company, 1919
Length 240 pages
Click here.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

The Recollections of a Drummer-Boy(Civil War)/Google Books

Title The Recollections of a Drummer-Boy
Author Harry M. Kieffer
Published 1911
Here.
From the preface:"Several years ago the writer prepared a brief series of papers for the columns of St. Nicholas, under the title of "Recollections of a Drummer-Boy." It was thought that these sketches of army life, as seen by a boy, would prove enjoyable and profitable to children in general, and especially to the children of the men who participated in the great Civil War, on one side or the other; while the belief was entertained that they might at the same time serve to revive in the minds of the veterans themselves long-forgotten or but imperfectly remembered scenes and experiences in camp and field. In the outstart it was not the author's design to write a connected story, but rather simply to prepare a few brief and hasty sketches of army life, drawn from his own personal experience and suitable for magazine purposes. But these, though prepared in such intervals as could with difficulty be spared from the exacting duties of a busy professional life, having been so kindly received by the editors of St. Nicholas, as well as by the very large circle of readers of that excellent magazine, and the writer having been urgently pressed on all sides for more of the same kind, it was thought well to revise and enlarge the "Recollections of a Drummer-Boy," and to present them to the public in permanent book form. In the shape of a more or less connected story of army life, covering the whole period of a soldier's experience from enlistment to muster-out, and carried forward through all the stirring scenes of camp and field, it was believed that these "Recollections," in the revised form, would commend themselves not only to the children of the soldiers of the late war, but to the surviving soldiers themselves; while at the same time they would possess a reasonable interest for the general reader as well."

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Stories of Art and Artists/Google Books

Title Stories of Art and Artists
Author Clara Erskine Clement Waters
Publisher Ticknor and company, 1887
Length 357 pages
Click here.

This book pairs well with Garden of Praise's free art appreciation lessons(scroll all the way down to bottom at the link). This is for younger children, and has color high definition images of the many of the paintings mentioned in Clara Water's book. There are also online quizzes, worksheets, etc. and helpful links.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Rolf in the Woods/Project Gutenberg

"In this story I have endeavoured to realize some of the influences that surrounded the youth of America a hundred years ago, and made of them, first, good citizens, and, later, in the day of peril, heroes that won the battles of Lake Erie, Plattsburg, and New Orleans, and the great sea fights of Porter, Bainbridge, Decatur, Lawrence, Perry, and MacDonough.

I have especially dwelt in detail on the woodland and peace scouting in the hope that I may thus help other boys to follow the hard-climbing trail that leads to the higher uplands. "

Rolf in the Woods by Ernest Thompson Seton