Story of the World 2: additional British history readings
I really like Susan Wise Bauer’s Story of the World series, particularly the earlier volumes, but I wanted to give some extra weighting to British history in our studies. I should say from the outset that I am not sure whether this is the ‘right’ or ‘best’ way cover history with children. For example, Charlotte Mason taught that children should begin history with the study of their own country, rather than attempting to understand world history, and I think there are some good arguments for this approach. I have attempted (not necessarily successfully) to have the best of both worlds, by focussing primarily on British history, interspersed with key events taking place in the rest of the world.
The main spine resource I used for British history was Our Island Story by H. E. Marshall. I don’t think that this book is perfect….I have written elsewhere about Marshall’s ‘great man’ view of history. I was raised on the comic history book 1066 and All That which is a parody of Marshall’s works, in which all kings are either ‘a good king’ or ‘a bad king’. I do find myself bristling at some of her sweeping moral judgements on individuals and situations! However, Our Island Story gives a thorough coverage to the main events of British history up to the Victorians, and the narrative is well written. There is very little social history here, you will need to include other resources if you want to study the lives of ordinary people.
One other note is that Our Island Story is very focussed on English history. If you would like to incorporate more Scottish history, you need Scotland’s Story instead.
Here is an overview chart of how I slotted Our Island Story in between the chapters of Story of the World 2, trying to keep everything mostly chronologically aligned. It is helpful to have read Chapters 1-7 of Our Island Story before commencing Story of the World 2 as these align with earlier time periods.
By following the links in the right hand column, you can see my other book suggestions for each broad time period.
| Story of the World 2 | Our Island Story |
| Celts, Saxons and Vikings | |
| 1. The Glory that was Rome 2. The Early Days of Britain | Chapters 8-13 of Our Island Story: Vortigern, Hengist and Horsa, King Arthur. |
| 3. Christianity Comes to Britain | Chapter 14 of Our Island Story: Gregory and the Pretty Children |
| 4. The Byzantine Empire 5. The Medieval Indian Empire 6. The Rise of Islam 7. Islam becomes an Empire 8. The Great Dynasties of China 9. East of China 10. The Bottom of the World 11. The Kingdom of the Franks 12. The Islamic Invasion 13. The Great Kings of France | Chapters 15-21 of Our Island Story: King Alfred, Ethelred the Unready, Edmund Ironside, Canute and Edward the Confessor. *It is hard to totally align the two books here, because SOTW slots in King Alfred in the same chapter as William the Conqueror, and there is a good deal of British history between these two monarchs. |
| 14. The Arrival of the Norsemen | Chapters 22-23 of Our Island Story: Harold, the Battle of Stamford Bridge |
| The Norman Conquest and Plantagenet kings | |
| 15. The First Kings of England | Chapters 24-26 of Our Island Story: Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror |
| 16. England After the Conquest 17. Knights and Samurai | Chapters 27-32 of Our Island Story: William Rufus, Henry I, Stephen and Matilda, Henry II |
| 18. The Age of Crusades 19. A New Kind of King 20. The Diaspora 21. The Mongols Devastate the East 22. Exploring the Mysterious East 23. The First Russians 24. The Ottoman Empire | Chapters 33-44 of Our Island Story: Richard the Lionheart, King John, Magna Carta, Henry III, Edward I, Edward II |
| 25. The End of the World | Chapters 45-48 of Our Island Story: Edward III *The Black Death took place during the reign of Edward III and is briefly mentioned in Chapter 48. |
| 26. France and England at War | Chapters 49-54 of Our Island Story: Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V and Agincourt, Joan of Arc |
| 27. War for the English Throne | Chapters 55-59 of Our Island Story: Henry VI, Edward IV, Warwick the Kingmaker, Edward V, Richard III, Battle of Bosworth Field. |
| The Tudors | |
| 28. The Kingdoms of Spain and Portugal 29. African Kingdoms 30. India under the Moghuls 31. Exploring New Worlds 32. The American Kingdoms 33. Spain, Portugal and the New World 34. Martin Luther’s New Ideas | Chapters 60-64 of Our Island Story: Henry VII, Henry VIII, the Church of England |
| 35. The Renaissance 36. Reformation and Counter Reformation | Chapters 65-68 of Our Island Story: Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey, Mary I |
| 37. The New Universe 38. England’s Greatest Queen 39. England’s Greatest Playwright 40. New Ventures to the Americas 41. Explorations in the North 42. Empires Collide | Chapters 69-73 of Our Island Story: Elizabeth I, the Armada |
