Summer reading
I am reading a couple of different books, but books that I think have value to Social Studies teachers:
Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed by Jared Diamond. Societies have made societal choices that ultimately led to thier downfall. It wasn’t like Monday everything is fine and Tuesday the place is a ghost town, but over the course of 50 to 100 years, these societies fal and are completely gone. Opened my eyes to the situations in Montana and with the Maya.
The other is: The Worst Hard Time: The untold story of those who escaped the great American Dustbowl by Timothy Egan. First person accounts of life in the Texas/Oklahoma panhandle, NE New Mexico, SE Colorado during the Great Depression. A very haunting book. I wouldn’t know what to do with a black cloud of dust that could penetrate every opening. And it isn’t just one or two storms. Roughly 8 years of them.
Not the most uplifting books, but great life lessons and you can see how people perservered through extremly challenging situations.
August 8th, 2008 at 1:17 am
Hmmm… I followed your link to Amazon and found out that I can buy “Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed” for $12.24. Then I went to World Cat on the library page and in seconds I put it on hold to pick up at the Walworth library. They will email me when it is in, so I don’t have to waste my time calling them or stopping in the check.
Out of curiosity, I did a Google Book Search too – but it took twice as long and led me to the same place.
Hmmm …. Library websites, easy to use AND saves money too
A good skill to have..