A History of the World in 100 Pictures
I recently read a brilliant children's non-fiction book by Usborne, A History of the World in 100 Pictures.
Last year I suggested that the goal of the compulsory years of the secondary school curriculum should be to give an overview of world history, its drivers and where Britain fits in it (the curriculum was roughly: 1/3 UK, 1/3 Europe, 1/3 the world). A lot of people got very angry at me for suggestion something so 'elitist', for thinking that pupils should be expected might be expected to cover this material in three years, or that I was foolish enough to think that the content of what was learned in history mattered as well as the skills.
Most adults would learn something from it too (I did) and my five year old son was fascinated by it, despite the vast majority of it going over his head. Clearly you'd cover a lot more than this in Years 7 to 9, but the very existence of this book demonstrates the concept is viable.
Also, it's just a great book. You should get it, especially if you have kids. The full list of topics is detailed below.
The first people
The first farmers
The first wheels
The city of Ur
The first writing
Egyptian Old Kingdom
Mohenjo-daro, Indus Valley
The Minoans
The Hittites
The Egyptian New Kingdom
The Assyrian Empire
The Olmecs, Central America
The start of Buddhism
The city of Babylon
The Classical Period, Greece
The Battle of Thermopylae
Alexander the Great
The First Emperor
Celtic tribes
The Roman Empire
The crucifixion of Jesus
The Han dynasty
The Byzantine Empire
The Silk Road
The Maya
The start of Islam
The Abbasid Empire
The Moors, Spain
Illuminated manuscrips
The Maori, New Zealand
The Vikings
Charlemagne
Spread of Hinduism
The Khmer dynasty
The Battle of Hastings
Kingdom of Ife
The Crusades
Samurai, Japan
Saladin
Ghengis Khan
Magna Carta
European cathedrals
The travels of Marco Polo
Easter Island
The Black Death
Great Zimbabwe
Ming dynasty, China
Invention of the printing press
The Renaissance
The European Reformation
Christopher Columbus
The Aztecs
The Ottoman Empire
The Kingdom of Benin
The Inca
Emperor Charles V
The Mughals
Nicolaus Copernicus
The Spanish Armada
The Romanovs
William Shakespeare
The Pilgrims
The Sun King
The Age of Enlightenment
Baroque music
Voyages of Captain Cook
The Declaration of Independence
The French Revolution
Napoleon Bonaparte
The British in India
The Industrial Revolution
Independence in South America
Abolition of slavery
The first 'computer'
The first photographs
The rise of nations
Charles Darwin and evolution
The Communist Manifesto
The American Civil War
Invention of the telephone
The Anglo-Zulu War
Invention of light bulbs
The first car
The Massacre at Wounded Knee
The first plane flight
The Theory of Relativity
Race to the South Pole
The First World War
The Western Front
The Russian Revolution
The Battle of Britain
D-Day
The Holocaust
Atomic warfare
The end of empires
The Cold War
Telstar 1
The Space Race
Computer revoution
Millennium celebrations