Map Assignments
The maps for the assignments for this series are found inside the books themselves. No need to duplicate them in the IG.
SOTW Revisions
Only books 1 and 2 have been revised (and we carry the revised editions); books 3 and 4 have not been revised. (7.08)
SOTW 2 revised edition
Is now shipping. 5.23.07. Production will post page revisions in the next few days. The text is essentially the same. This book starts in week 17, so the new info should be there before customers need it.
6.18.07 Everyone who ordered 2007 edition of core 6 was shipped updated pages (2nd week of June); these pages and a cover letter were shrinkwrapped to the top of all in stock core 6 ig's so all who purchase the rest of this catalog year will have both editions. If customer has specific questions about schedule used with revised edition refer ticket to Rhonda or Judy (they will have updated edition IG's). Below you will find specifics on how to identify which edition the customer may have:
- New book says Revised Edition on the cover and title page; on the copyright page it says 2nd edition, copyright 2007; has archer on front;
- 1st edition is a 2003 edition; has a queen on front;
Story of the World Vol. 1 New Edition, Revised Core 6 schedule [8.16.06]
Summer, 2006, Sonlight began selling the 2nd edition of Story of the World: Ancient Times, the first volume in Susan Wise Bauer's popular history series. As a result, certain schedule corrections needed to be made to reflect the changes in this new volume. Please click on the link to download and print these updates.
http://www.sonlight.com/uploads/6tb_story_of_the_world_new_schedule.pdf
Posted on the Updates page: http://www.sonlight.com/2006-6-updates.html.html
The revision of SOTW Vol. 1 contains no *content* change ... only page numbering changed. In the first edition, the page numbering began at page 12 ... in this second edition the page numbering begins at 11. That is why we have created a revised schedule.
We improved our maps and illustrations for Volumes 3&4, and then went back and revised the maps and illustrations for 1 and 2 as well. So the revised 1 and 2 and the original 3 and 4 are all comparable now.
As well as revising maps and illustrations, we did add a few explanatory footnotes. We also improved the timeline and index, and put the pronunciation guide into the revised editions rather than only having it in the workbook. The text is essentially the same. (4.23.07)
Customer comments about the accuracy of SOTW's chapter on New Zealand:
This is the chapter on New Zealand. It contains a huge number of errors and fabrication. I sent a long email to the publisher, advising them of corrections (with references to respected publications) but was told that the book is called STORY of the World because the author feels entitled to weave a story around the facts. (This should be made clear in your IG!) In this case, the facts are either downright wrong or ignored in favour of the author's story. Our history is not lost in the mists of time, it is well-documented in writing, painting and photography. I would like to make my research available to you so that information can be added to the IG to balance out the author's views. At the moment, the comment in the IG about the "unfair Treaty of Waitangi" is an insult to New Zealanders, and shows a total lack of knowledge about our history.
Additional notes from John on corrections to SOTW 4:
At the beginning of my notes, I list just a few errors: On page 8, Mrs. Wise Bauer suggests that the sun rises and sets each day because of the earth’s orbit instead of its spin.
On page 165, she erroneously refers to “Hearst and Randolph” instead of “Hearst and Pulitzer.” (The two publishers’ names were William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer.)
On pages 176-177, she completely confuses the concepts of capital and profit on the one hand and profit and salary on the other.
On page 204, she confuses a relatively small group of Chinese for “the people of China” as a whole.
On page 287, she places Germany’s hyperinflation in the 1930s—a good decade after the fact. One of the most offensive portions was where she speaks of Chairman Mao of China. For example: p. 359: “Under Mao, China began to grow more prosperous. Peasants who owned their own land worked harder. . . . ”
Here's what I wrote in response (I have eliminated my footnote references to the sources from which I quote): I am unaware of Mae ever advocating for peasant ownership of land. Instead, he is credited with proposing—and then implementing the policies that brought the peasants under “[Communist] Party control by the establishment of agricultural collectives.” This policy was gradually pushed through between 1949 and 1958, first by establishing "mutual aid teams" of 5-15 households, then in 1953 "elementary agricultural cooperatives" of 20-40 households, then from 1956 in "higher co-operatives" of 100-300 families. These reforms (sometimes now referred to as The Little Leap Forward) were generally unpopular with the peasants and usually implemented by summoning them to meetings and making them stay there for days and sometimes weeks until they "voluntarily" agreed to join the collective. This doesn't sound like peasant ownership to me.
And as for prosperity: The first phase of collectivisation was not a success and there was widespread famine in 1956, though the Party's propaganda machine announced progressively higher harvests.
In 1957, . . . Mao began the Great Leap Forward . . . intended to increase the production of steel and to raise agricultural production to twice 1957 levels. . . . Steel production did show significant growth, to over 14 million tons of steel a year, from the previous 5.2 million. . . . However, much of the steel produced was impure and useless. In the meantime, chaos in the collectives and unfortunate climatic conditions resulted in widespread famine, while Mao continued to export grain to save face with the outside world. According to various sources, the death toll due to famine may have been as high as 20 to 30 million.
Wise Bauer wants to call any of this prosperity?
p. 360: “(B)efore long, the prosperity [Mao] brought to China would begin to disintegrate, and China would sink once more into fighting, unhappiness, and violence.”
Besides questioning where Wise Bauer comes up with the idea of Chinese prosperity under Mao, one wonders what kind of “happiness” and lack of violence she believe China sank out of after Mao was gone. Mao’s first political campaigns after founding the People’s Republic were land reform and the suppression of counter-revolutionaries, which centered on mass executions - often before organized crowds. These campaigns of mass repression targeted former KMT officials, businessmen, former employees of Western companies, intellectuals whose loyalty was suspect, and significant numbers of rural gentry. The U.S. State department in 1976 estimated that there may have been a million killed in the land reform, 800,000 killed in the counterrevolutionary campaign. Mao himself claimed a total of 700,000 killed during these early years (1949–53). However, because there was a policy to select "at least one landlord, and usually several, in virtually every village for public execution," 1 million deaths seems to be an absolute minimum, and many authors agree on a figure of between 2 million and 5 million dead. In addition, at least 1.5 million people were sent to "reform through labor" camps (laogai). Mao’s personal role in ordering mass executions is undeniable. He defended these killings as necessary for the securing of power.
And Wise Bauer wants us to believe that anything besides this could entail “sink[ing] . . . into fighting, unhappiness, and violence”?
And then, just one more example. As she discusses the Korean War, she says, p. 370: “By 1953, more than three million people had died in this pointless fight.” “Pointless” to whom? I doubt many of almost 50 million South Koreans of today would wish to live under the Communist leadership of their cousins in North Korea!