Streams of Civilization: Earliest Times to the Discovery of the New World, Vol. 1

by Mary Stanton, Albert Hyma

Most history textbooks are written from a secular viewpoint, but this introductory text is different! Providing a comprehensive look at Western, African, and Asian civilizations from creation to 1620, it affirms the biblical view of creation (though it discusses evolution) and gives your kids insight into other cultures and religions from a Christian perspective. Includes vocabulary questions, exercises, maps, and black-and-white illustrations. Ideal for grades 9 and up. 410 pages, hardcover from Christian Liberty Press.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, School, Egypt, Historical

410 pages, Hardcover

First published June 28, 1978

Reviews

[Quath · Rating 1 out of 5]

So it's history written from a Christian viewpoint... whoopie. I suffered through this abomination of a textbook and its companion book for 2 years in high school. It's dry enough to start a wildfire in the rain forest. It has more bold (aka, "memorize this for the test") words on each page than not-bold words. The pictures are grainy antiques. From a person who devoured all kinds of books growing up, I wanted to gouge my eyes out when we started using these as my history textbooks. My lucky siblings got the far better "George Washington's World" series while I agonized over memorizing a meaningless series of names and dates. Thankfully, GA Henty and my college history professor came along to prove that history can be interesting and meaningful and actually enjoyable.

(Edit: I'm a Christian so I'm not opposed to the actual content, just the delivery. This is NOT how to teach ANY form of history, ever. If you're a homeschooling parent looking for a Christian history textbook, PLEASE pick something else. Anything else.)

[Gary]

First there was Adam and Eve. Then a big party of Jews crossed a sea, I mean like right through it. After that they figured they could do anything so they bombed Palestine into oblivion. LOL. Righteous fight scenes! Then some really smart people accepted a man named Jesus into their hearts, so they're all good. The other Jews left behind... not so good.


P.S. The illustrations of Eve before she realized she was naked are pretty hot! But then she gets jiggy with a snake and gets dressed after that. Still, though, she's got awesome long wavy hair.

[katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

these books are boring...

[Philip · Rating 5 out of 5]

An indispensable guide to ancient history from a Christian perspective--a breath of fresh air in today's evolution-dominated academic world.

[CarOlive · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate this book so much. It's so dry, and even though the introduction says the authors are trying to write an unbiased history book, it is so biased.

Also, they skip over many influential people, but coincidentally, they are all women and people of color. And the last chapter or so is about the "New World" as in, the Americas, and they use the terms "Indians" to talks about ALL the native people groups.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Streams of Civilization: Volume One” provides a thorough overview of ancient, and post-classical, world history. The presentation of information is concise and engaging. The photos of relevant archaeology provide additional interest and visual understanding. Its Christian perspective connects the events of the Bible to the events of the rest of the world in a way that shows the effects of Judaism and Christianity on history, as well as giving context to the stories in the Bible.

[Grace DuBois · Rating 2 out of 5]

Such a good history book!

[Steph · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a text book. Informative yet boring. Covers quite a bit of history. Not overly pushy about their christian beliefs.

[Shari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Used with My Father's World Creatuon to the Greeks. Very dry and textbook like. I stopped using this and supplemented with Story of the World.

[Wayne Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

The vast majority of public school history textbooks are written from a secular, evolutionary, humanistic point of view; frequently contain anti-Christian and even anti-American bias; and present a distorted view of history that has contributed to the strong modern-day decline of interest in the subject. Streams of Civilization is the result of a four-year project sponsored by the Institute for Creation research to produce a truly objective textbook on world history from a Biblical worldview, suitable for use in both public and private schools. It was republished by Christian Liberty Academy and made available for homeschooling families.
Starting at the beginning, the book explains the differences between the beliefs of evolution and special creation, with very convincing explanations concerning some of the evidence, biological, anthropological, and geological, that is often given for macroevolution. Then, from the dawn of civilizations in the Fertile Crescent, the Indus River valley, and ancient Egypt, it moves on through ancient and medieval times, down to the Renaissance, Reformation, and Age of Discovery (c. 1620s), with copious discussions of non-Western civilizations in Africa, the Far East, and the Western Hemisphere. It is not normally my purpose to review curriculum, but occasionally I do. While there are other good world history textbooks available for homeschoolers, we chose this one because it shows the relevance of the Bible and Christianity to the interpretation of historical events and personalities.
Yes, Streams of Civilization is a textbook. Some homeschoolers despise textbooks. We don’t rely solely on textbooks in our homeschooling, but we prefer to have them around to provide some structure and outline to our learning. Then we like to supplement them, especially in history with historical fiction, original source material, and other “living books.” Yet, Streams of Civilization is not like many other textbooks in that it presents the material in more of a narrative fashion that ties events and people together rather than just dry, dusty factoids to be memorized and regurgitated on a test. It is actually fairly interesting reading, and while I might not agree with every observation made, I really found nothing major to which I would object. Both of our boys have had it in their sophomore curriculum, and we found it very helpful. Also, I used it to prepare a world history course for a homeschool co-op. Christian Liberty Academy also publishes a teacher’s manual which we did not use, tests which we did use, and a second volume.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basic overview of world history with an emphasis on Biblical/Church history.