Across the Centuries

Rating:
Summary: Poorly written and confusing don't waste your money on this
Review: A poorly researched 558-page history propaganda that covers the millennium and a half between the fall of Rome and the French Revolution. About half of its eight sections are devoted to the West, and the other four deal with Islam, Africa, Asian empires, and pre-Columbian America. Warning the information in this book is innacurate. A waste of paper and money.

Rating:
Summary: Book is great; confusing info
Review: As a student in seventh grade reading this book for history, I think this textbook gives confusing info to students like us. They use big vocabulary words and hard questions to answer that none of my classmates can answer. If you want an informative textbook, this one is the one for you. But otherwise, the textbook is very hard to understand.

Rating:
Summary: Boring, but deffinetely not bias.
Review: I'm a 12 year-old kid, who just happens to be Jewish. I respect all religions, as I hope most people do, and I read this book at school. There ARE two book series. One we read last year in 6th grade, mostly covered Christianity and Judaism, and only covered past events. I found it somewhat interesting. This book, however boring it may be to me, is deffinetely not bias. The book teaches students about Islam, while it is the teacher's choice on how to teach it. So, basically it would be the teacher's fault if it was taught wrong and not the books.

Rating:
Summary: Incredibly Interesting and Well-Writen w/ No Bias
Review: I'm a 13 year old entering the 8th grade and having read the 8th, 7th, and 6th History book in this series I must say that for anyone of any age who is thouroughly interested in the Middle Ages and the Reformation, can enjoy this book beyond anything. It's the best basic text you could ever want to rely on. As a 13 year old who's primary vocation is to become a college professor of history I am truely begging you, even you're not interested in this particular section of historical events, to buy this book, because I beleive that if you read it, you will become interested.

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Summary: Tries to convert us to Islam!
Review: Not only is it a waste of resources, it is pretty much trying to convert us to Muslims! Nothing against that, but it's so cheap, no wonder so many people use it.

Rating:
Summary: Anti Christian Bias
Review: This "text book" holds Christianity in a somewhat unfavorable light. Parents who value America's Judeo Christian heritage should insist on unbiased instrtuction.

Rating:
Summary: deceptive presentation of history
Review: This text book is extremely biased toward Islam. The entire 3rd chapter, entitled the Roots of Islam" and 4th chapter, entitled "the Empire of Islam" teach exclusively upon those subjects in a very appealing fashon. Important facts about the life of Muhammad are omitted in the textbook, such as the fact that he had 11 wives, including a 9 year old girl. At least one of his wives (a Jewish woman) was acquired after Muhammad and his warriors destroyed her tribe. Muhammad gave her the choice between becoming one of his household slaves or one of his wives. Also not mentioned is the fact that Muhammad was a military leader who advanced the spread of Islam through the power of the sword. Raiding merchant caravans traveling through the Middle East largely financed his military power. However, In student's textbook, on p.65 we read, "Muhammad's success in spreading Islam was due in large part to his strong character. His followers were attracted to his morality".
In the teacher's edition on p.67 teachers are told to "Emphasize the fact that Muslim forces enjoyed huge success and expanded the Muslim Empire with lightnig speed". On p.60 of the teachers edition teachers are told to tell students that " According to tradition, Muhammad's earthly life was filled with signs of his future greatness...
Houghton Mifflin promises in the introduction of the book to protect the private religious beliefs of the student, that no one religion will be presented as superior to any other, and that the book will teach about the religions but not seek to indoctrinate. It is interesting to note that there are no chapters devoted to Judiasm, Moses, Christianity nor Jesus. A good example of this omission can be found on pages 24-25 where there is a photo of a Byzantine container with crosses prominently on the top, however the time line directly below skips from 27 B.C. to 200 A.D without so much as a mention of the life of Jesus. If students don't know much about the history of Christianity and Judiasm and their impact upon the western world they will certainly be just as ignorant after reading this book.

I have reviwed this book thoroughly and this is the consistent treatment Houghton Mifflin gives to the other major religions.
This account of history is shockingly deceptive. As Benjamin Franklin said "half of the truth is usually a great lie"