The Book of the Ancient World 2ED Reader

by Dorothy Mills

The Book of the Ancient World is an account of our common heritage from the dawn of civilization to the coming of the Greeks. It is the story of how human beings began their great adventure of learning how to live; of how they have sought to satisfy the practical needs of their bodies, the questioning of their minds, and the searching of their spirits. To this end it subordinates details of political events to the record of things that lie at the foundation or our modern civilization. Dorothy Mills had an uncanny and unique ability to write history that is interesting and at the same time based on sound scholarship. Her direct, engaging approach is valued increasingly by the many parents in our day who are looking for reliable materials for home study, as well as by many private school educators. The highly-prized six volumes of her historical works (see below) have become very scarce on the used book market, and so Dawn Chorus has undertaken to reprint them as part of its effort to offer texts ideally suited to the needs of a new generation of teachers and students. In a world where the quality of education has so deteriorated, may the reissue of this wonderful historical series shine as a beacon to a new generation of young (and not so young) scholars!. Dawn Chorus publishes these five other books by Dorothy Mills: The Book of the Ancient Greeks; The Book of the Ancient Romans; The People of Ancient Israel; The Middle Ages; and Renaissance and Reformation Times. Dawn Chorus has also republished another outstanding, and long-out-of-print historical series perfectly suited for home or school use (and highly recommended in home-school curricula), entitled The Picturesque Tale of Progress, by Olive Beaupr Miller. It is available in large format (9 volumes), or smaller, double-bound format (5 volumes).

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

213 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1923

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.