[The_Republic_Of_Maine]

Have you ever read The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire? If so, do you think it would be a good book for our older home schooled children?

[EEGator]

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm

[morphing libertarian]

http://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/the_history_of_rome/page/5/

FYI

Gibbons is a collection of books. I recommend for college students serious about becoming woman scholars. For high schoolers seeking general education I would start with Livy and read forward in chronological order from several sources you could ID with internet sources.

You can mix contemporary historians with people like Michael Grant.

Good videos like HBO’s Rome and I Claudius (PBS) but not suitable for those under 21 in my opinion.

Good luck.

[morphing libertarian]

look up the sources for the graph in post 16 for contemporary historians.

[Varda]

I never read the book but one of my anthropology professors thought it was a great book for citations, attributions and bibliography. He thought that Gibbon often made conclusions which weren't backed up by the sources he cited.

IMO comparing one of Gibbons’ conclusions to the sources he cites would make an interesting study for a high schooler.

[Cincinnatus.45-70]

“Have you ever read The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire? If so, do you think it would be a good book for our older home schooled children?”

I have read it and it’s good, but not pithy in most places. I took it with me when I was deployed with DoD to an office job somewhere that I won’t mention. Suffice it to say, I had little else to do off duty, so it was great. Maybe not great reading at any other time for a modern reader, however educational.

People had more time to read when Gibbon was writing. A lot of late 18th Century and 19th Century writing was and is great, but moderns won’t sit still for it. For example, Sir Walter Scott wrote some great books that no one will touch today.

I would suggest taking a look at Plutarch. You can find various translations and collections of his lives of the ancient Greeks and Romans, but they are short enough and have a clear moral in them that they may be better suited for middle school and high school ages. My grand parents read them in high school, one read them in Latin in school, but I think English is good enough.

[Fiji Hill]

Have you ever read The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire? If so, do you think it would be a good book for our older home schooled children?

Are you referring to Reflections on the Causes of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire (London: Manby et al, 1759) by Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu?

[rlmorel]

Absolutely.