The Book of the Ancient World

by Dorothy Mills

This edition of The Book of the Ancient World from No Fear Schoolhouse Press contains the complete and unabridged text from the original 1923 edition, all of the original images, plus 10 new maps and images unique to this edition.

The Book of the Ancient World by Dorothy Mills tells the story of how man began his great adventure of learning how to live, and it travels with him on this quest from the dawn of civilization to the coming of the Greeks. This book takes a broad look at ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Hebrews, Hittites, Persians, and Phoenicians. The Book of the Ancient World is an excellent option for Charlotte Mason homeschoolers, or any educator interested in using a wonderful living book to teach ancient history.

Genres: History, School, Nonfiction, Ancient History, Egypt

254 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1923

About the author

Agnes Dorothy Mills M.A. (1879 -1966) was an American historian and educator.

She graduated from the University of St. Andrews (LLA; 1915) & Columbia University (AM; Education; 1915). Miss Mills was a teacher of history & chairman of the department of history at the Brearley School in New York City.

Reviews

[Sara Hollar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great living history book of the most ancient civilizations. Chapters are very manageable. My Year 7 son read this.

[Katie Krombein · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the Memoria Press version, which doesn't seem to have a Goodreads reference point.
This was a very simplified and extremely positive-toned, easy to read overview of the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Hebrews, Hittites, Persians. She includes a few original sources (like Herodotus) but the book does not do a great job of titling or writing any sources (so that I could go read a fuller excerpt), aside from naming the translator. Her maps and the timeline at the back were helpful to me, although she wrote about places not labeled on the maps so I did still look up various places. I appreciated that the artwork was primarily of artifacts from the time.
Like another reviewer said, she didn't entirely seem to know how to splice scriptural evidence with other historical evidence, so she made origin/motivation statements that made you wonder where she got the information - for example, that the Hebrews took the idea of building the Tower of Babel from the countries around them.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the publication of this book that Memoria Press puts out, and I was not as impressed with it as I would have liked. Mills does not have a high view of Scripture, nor does she understand how to use it as is evidenced by chapter 8 in the section on Egyptians in section 3 found on page 67 in the Memoria Press 2013 edition. Mills attributes the Egyptians to ideas found later in the book of Matthew in the Bible without referencing where Matthew was referring to the Old Testament, thus placing a higher value on the pagan idea than is really appropriate.
I read this book with my 8th grade daughter, and we discussed the short-comings of it. I am disappointed in this book, and if you choose to use it for your child's schooling, be sure to read it as well to see what you need to correct.

[Betsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned so much about the cultures of the biblical world and all they all influenced each other! An excellent little resource for grasping the history and culture of the times and people groups: Egypt, Phillistia, Assyria, Babylon, the Hebrews, etc.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Information on a page. It was dreadful to read and boring. You could learn things, but it was overall a horrible experience. Would not recommend.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Preread for our homeschool. I thought it was a very good introduction to ancient cultures.

[Jessica Perteet · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was our ancient history spine for Form 3 and I read it out loud. Next we are reading “The Cat of Bubastes.”

[Meredith Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

With Ben and Mabry

[Stuart · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're a homeschooling mom (or dad) or one considering homeschooling, then you know there are a TON of curriculum options out there. Some are better than others, but it really boils down to what style of homeschooling you are going to employ. If you are taking the classical approach, like my wife and I intend to do, then you definitely know the name Dorothy Mills. Dorothy Mills wrote a six book series on ancient history. Two different publishers have taken the time to re-print these, Memoria Press and Angelico Press. Even though Memoria Press has student and teacher guides, you can purchase with them, they only have four of the six volumes. Personally, I prefer the Angelico Press editions after all and will be reviewing one volume every other month on my blog. Today, I am starting with The Book of the Ancient World.

The Book of the Ancient World begins with an Introduction that speaks of cave men and prehistoric times. It speaks of making stone tools and how some people don't believe history really started until man was able to keep written records. I'm honestly unsure how I felt about this introduction, but thankfully it was short and something you could skip over and not miss anything in the book. The contents of the rest of the book includes the Egyptians; the Assyrians and Babylonians; the Hebrews; the Hittites; the Persians; and the Phoenicians. Egypt by far gets the most attention as it spans over 50 pages. The rest of the ancient people, with the exception of Israel, only garnered about 20-25 pages.

It was hard to pick a favorite part in this book. The level of detail given to the Egyptians was fascinating. Ms. Mills didn't just discuss popular pharaohs and their pyramids, but she also covered their gods, their books and writings, what typical life consisted of in Egypt, and even how children lived in Egypt. She also did a truly great job addressing Israel. In this section, she included the Patriarchs, the three kings (Saul, David, and Solomon), and the Divided Kingdom. I am truly fascinated to see what level of detail she went into in her book, The People of Ancient Israel. I wish more information would have been included on places like Persia and Phoenicia, but I appreciate that there was additional reading suggestions at the end. The one that I wish there had been more of/any of was maps! Maps would have definitely elevated this book, and perhaps they were there in the original edition, but not in this reprint.

After reading through this book, I feel much more knowledgeable about the ancient world. Yes, some information may be a tad dated as we have made new finds regarding these ancient worlds, but that doesn't take away from the quality of this work or the information that Dorothy Mills compiled. And while the book won't make you a certified expert, it will provide you a great starting point on the subject. So if you are an adult looking for an introduction to the ancient world or a teacher/parent looking for a supplemental text to your history book, you will find this book to be extremely helpful. I imagine you could use it as the skeleton for your homeschool history, but you will definitely want to find some more resources to add meat to the bones.

[Sam Gaylor]

Another one for school. AGHHHHHHHH!

[Sarah - All The Book Blog Names Are Taken · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love discovering old history volumes like this - or better yet, having them given to me by a friend. I love seeing how new discoveries have changed our thinking, or not, over the decades or centuries. Neat little book and I hope to find the rest of the books in this series by Mills.