Description

Worlds Together, Worlds Apart: History of the World is a textbook in one single volume that covers the history of the world from the beginning to the modern era.

Reason For Teaching

This textbook is arguably the most popular collegiate World History textbook; it is written by some of the world’s most respected historians. The rigor level of the information is appropriate for college, which is the standard we must seek in an AP course. It is also a model for the College Board in their process for creating the AP exam. Because it is packaged in one volume, it saves some money, as opposed to the traditional two-volume set.

Disclaimer

This text is not written from a Christian perspective. It is open in its embrace of an evolutionary worldview and does not profess to examine historical events from a biblical or even theistic perspective. It tends to treat Christianity (and other religions) respectfully, but as well-intentioned myths and fictions that people developed in order to explain the supernatural. However, within the framework of this course, students will approach this secular textbook with sound, biblically based explanation, analysis, and teaching from the Course Developer and Classroom Teachers. This is an excellent way for students to see what kind of faulty information they will potentially face on the AP test and in college in general, teaching them to respond as Christian scholars and thinkers should.

Description

History through the Eyes of Faith examines one major historical question in western civilization from a biblical perspective. The historical dilemmas it addresses span from the ancient Israelites to modern times.

Reason For Teaching

This is currently the only historian’s analysis on the market that examines the big, difficult questions of western civilization specifically from a biblical perspective, in a readable, approachable manner. Generally, Wells does not tell the reader what to think, but raises aspects of historical dilemmas that are usually not on people’s radars.

Description

Lewis considers the whirlwind growth of Islam politically and militarily, contrasts that with its protracted death as a major world-player, and then asks, “What changed? Why did the Arabs and then Turks (and others), once the dominant civilization on the planet, fail to remain so?”

Reason For Teaching

Examining Islam in general is very difficult for historians, and the question Lewis raises had yet to be answered satisfactorily. In part this came from political and religious bias, including (frequently) from Christians whose own evaluations of the topic were lacking. Lewis provides a rational, well-researched argument for the failure of Islamic society after the great heights to which once aspired.

Disclaimer

Lewis’s argument does not purport to be an argument based on a biblical worldview.