Title: The Story of the World Volume 4: The Modern Age
Author: Susan Wise Bauer
Series: Story of the World, book 4
Major Themes: American Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War
Synopsis: Modern history, from approximately 1850 through the 1990s, is told in an interesting fashion.
I found The Story of the World Volume 4: The Modern Age, which covers “from Victoria’s empire to the end of the USSR”, quite interesting. My boys were a different story; most of them didn’t want to listen. The only way they like history is in the form of a novel—but sometimes it’s good to get an overview!
As with the other volumes in this series, Susan Wise Bauer takes us around the world to discover what was happening in different places at the same time. The first few chapters will take you to India, Japan, Africa, and China, as well as the Crimea and Italy! The rest of the book is similar. A couple of the chapters cover each of the world wars, and one describes the American Civil War.
I found it interesting, as we read through the book, to see the escalation of violence in the world. After the major wars of the 20th century, terrorism began to be a problem. I also found the chapter about the First Persian Gulf War interesting; I remember when it happened, but wasn’t clear on WHAT happened. I appreciated the way the author ended the book; she decided not to include the 9/11 terrorist attack, because it was too soon to understand what had happened.
WARNING: Wars are described, so there is some violence.
Age levels:
Listening Level—Ages 5 – 8, 8 – 12
Reading Independently—Ages 8 – 12, 10 – 12, 12 – 15
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