Monique Agnant

Professor Horowitz

History 196

May 16, 2001

Across the Centuries is a seventh grade social studies textbook published by Houghton Mifflin Company and is used in many California school districts including the Los Angeles Unified School District. Like most social studies textbooks targeted towards sixth and seventh graders, Across the Centuries attempts to give students an overall glimpse into the history of past societies, empires, kingdoms, and civilizations in ways in which the students can easily comprehend and remember.

Though this social studies textbook attempts to provide students with information on a variety of cultural groups and civilizations of the past, like most other text books used in California's school districts, Houghton Mifflin's Across the Centuries focuses more attention towards providing information about the historical people and events of Western Europe. Though the information on the history of Western Europe is dominant among lessons and topics found in this textbook, there are still many discrepancies regarding facts and omitted information found within these lessons. Chapter 10: Lesson One entitled "Europe after the Roman Empire" is an example of a lesson that shows some weaknesses regarding facts and omitted information yet still provides students with a small yet reasonable amount of accurate information about this time period along with a few examples of medieval art and poetry.

Chapter Ten: Lesson One entitled "Europe After the Roman Empire" discusses the conditions of Western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire that led to the rise of feudalism. The lesson begins discussing the final days of the Roman Empire and its total ruin and destruction due to countless battles and invasion. Soon after the final invasion of the Roman Empire occurred, Germanic groups including the Franks under the rule of their leader Clovis, began to create kingdoms and spread their rule throughout Western Europe. Along with becoming the new rulers of much of Western Europe, the Franks also began to spread Christianity throughout their land.

Once the powerful reign of Clovis had ended, a new ruling family rose to power. One of the most prominent members of the new ruling family was King Charlemagne who later became emperor of the Western Roman Empire. After Charlemagne's death in 814 ce, Europe broke up into small kingdoms that dealt with countless invasions by groups such as the Vikings and the Muslims. Soon after the these invasions, a new political and social system began to develop known as feudalism which "was rooted in the people's need for protection against invaders and in land owner's need for defense." (Armento, Nash, Salter, and Wixson, 261) This new political and social order strengthened the loyalty of the people to their king and the way of life in Western Europe was changed forever.

The lesson on "Europe After the Roman Empire" is divided into three distinct sections. These sections include 1) Barbarian invasion and the fall of the Roman Empire; 2) the rise of Germanic kingdoms; and 3) disunity and invasion of Medieval Europe and the rise of feudalism. (Armento, Nash, Salter, and Wixson, 256)

The first section, Barbarian invasion and the fall of the Roman Empire, serves as an introduction to the lesson and provides a small glimpse into the barbarians' conquest of the Roman Empire. The section also includes a small excerpt from a Roman poem written in the 400's in order to give the students an idea of the overall disastrous remains of the Roman Empire.

Section two presents information regarding the rise of Germanic kingdoms and the reign of Charlemagne. In this section, students learn about the actual time period in which these events took place known as the "Middle Ages or the Medieval Period." Of the Germanic invaders in Europe during the Middle Ages, the group known as the Franks is focused on throughout this lesson. The section on the Franks begins with information regarding their prominent leader Clovis who became king in 481c.e. According to the facts found in this lesson, Clovis led the Franks for thirty warring years, which helped to widen the boundaries of the Frankish kingdom. Clovis is also given credit for leading the Franks into Christianity.

Though the information found in the lesson regarding the Franks is accurate, the lesson fails to recognize the important influences of the Christian religion in the conquests of Clovis and the Franks. After reading the data found in this section of the textbook, it seems as if the early achievements of the Franks are credited solely to Clovis when in fact much of the Franks' strength, power, and stability was due to their conversion to Roman Christianity.

" The Franks conversion had large political implications. By adopting Roman rather than Arian Christianity, the Franks attracted the allegiance of the Christian population of the former Roman Empire, as well as recognition and support from the pope and the hierarchy of the western Christian church. Alliance with the church of Rome greatly strengthened the Franks, who became the most powerful of the Germanic peoples between the fifth and ninth centuries." (Bentley, Ziegler, 383)

The remainder of the section concerning the rise of Germanic Kingdoms focuses on the reign of "Charles the Great" otherwise known as Charlemagne. This portion of the lesson provides students with information about Charlemagne and his reign as emperor of the Western Roman Empire including a short description of his appearance, the time period in which he reigned as emperor, and king, 768ce-814ce, and lists some of the invading groups he led the Franks to battle such as the Lombards in Italy, and the Saxons from the North. This section also describes the crowning of Charlemagne as emperor of the Western Roman Empire and his achievements in regards to the flourishing of scholars, literature and religion.

This portion of the lesson on "Europe After the Roman Empire" provides an adequate amount of correct facts about the reign of Charlemagne and the powerful Franks according to sources including Louis Halphen's novel entitled, Charlemagne and the Carolingian Empire. Along with the information about the reign of Charlemagne, the students are encouraged to read "The Story of Roland", a re-written version of the epic poem Song of Roland, which was written to glorify the ideals of the Franks' nobility in this period and refers to historical incidents during Charlemagne's time. Though the re-written version conveys some of the ideas found in the original version, much of the material is re-worded and heavily watered down making the re-written version less interesting and less factual. A great addition to this portion of the lesson would be the inclusion of an excerpt from the original Song of Roland, which would allow the children a chance to experience a reading from a primary source written about the battles of the Franks under the leadership of Charlemagne. One example of an excerpt that can be shared with the class is entitled the Battle of Roncevalles.

"Upon a peak is Oliver mounted, Kingdom of Spain he sees before him spread, And Sarrazins, so many gathered. Their helmets gleam, with gold are jewelled, Also their shields, their hauberks orfreyed, Also their swords, ensigns on spears fixed. Rank beyond rank could not be numbered, So many there, no measure could he set. In his own heart he's sore astonished, Fast as he could, down from the peak hath sped Comes to the Franks, to them his tale hath said." (Song of Roland, line 1028-1038)

Section three consists of information regarding the period of time after the death of Charlemagne including the reign of his son Charles the Pious and the break up of Europe into smaller kingdoms. Medieval England, one of the smaller kingdoms of Europe, becomes the focus of this section which discusses the terrible battles between the Vikings and King Alfred and the establishment of the many new rulers of England such as King Edward and the latter King William the Conqueror.

This last portion of section three deals with the establishment of the political system known as feudalism and its effects on Western Europe. In this portion, the feudal system is briefly described along with vocabulary words such as fief; large estates given to warrior in return for protections, vassals; another words for subject, and other vocabulary words such as knight, hierarchies, and oath of fealty. Though this section of the lesson only provides a small glimpse into the establishment and structure of feudalism, Lesson Two of Chapter Ten entitled, "Daily Life in Feudal Europe" goes into much more detail and discusses not only the hierarchical structure of feudalism but also presents information about the lives of those who were both positively and negatively effected by the establishment of feudalism including the lives of kings and peasants.

Though the lesson covering Europe after the Roman Empire consists of a reasonable amount of correct information regarding the occurrences of the time period known as the Middle Ages, it does not provide any information concerning the history of medieval women. The following lesson, "Daily Life in Feudal Europe" which attempts to provide information about all aspects of life in Europe during the Middle Ages, also lacks an adequate amount of information about women. In the two paragraphs written about medieval women in Lesson Two, they are characterized as powerless servants to their husbands and the only responsibilities of women discussed in this section are cooking, cleaning, and providing care for everyone in the castle. Yet according to data found in Madeleine Pelne Cosman's Women at Work in Medieval Europe, the influence of women can be found in many aspects of the medieval period in Europe including those of providing care for their families.

" Medieval women worked in professions and crafts...[medieval women] were successful writers and artists, physicians and surgeons, political and church leaders, commercial bakers, fabric weavers, and mineral miners earning good salaries and wages, meriting honor and reputation, and coexisting (usually benevolently, sometimes antagonistically) with medieval men." (Cosman, 5)

During the Middle Ages, women were also called upon frequently to defend the honor of their families. The most famous of these women is Joan of Arc, a woman who led the resistance to the English invasion of France in the Hundred Years War. (Himmell, 7)

The story of Joan of Arc, which can be found in Chapter Twelve, entitled "Europe at the End of the Middle Ages," and the stories of the many other women who influenced the medieval period would be an excellent addition to the lesson on Europe after the Roman Empire found the Houghton Mifflin social studies textbook, Across the Centuries. In adding this information, students will not only learn about the political aspects of the Middle Ages and the achievements of medieval men, they will also learn about the important influences of women in the Middle Ages which may provide a more interesting and well-rounded social studies lesson for seventh grade students.

Primary Resources

* ___________. The Song of Roland Verses I - LXXXVII Medieval and Classical

Library Release #12

Secondary Resources

* Armento, Beverly J., Nash, Gary B., Salter, Christopher L., Wixson, Karen K.

Across the Centuries: Teacher's Edition Boston: Houghton Mifflin

Company, 1991.

* Cosman, Madeleine Pelner. Women at Work in Medieval Europe. New York:

Fact on File Inc., 2000.

* Bentley, Jerry H., Ziegler, Herbert F. Traditions &Encounters: A Global

Perspective on the Past. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2000.

* Echols, Anne, Williams, Marty. Between Pit and Pedestal: Women in the Middle

Ages Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1994.

* Halphen, Louis. Charlemagne and the Carolingian Empire. Amsterdam: North

Holland Publishing Company, 1977.

* Himmell, Rhoda. The Role of Women in Medieval Europe. California: The

Regents, 1992.

* Richter, Michael. The Formation of the Medieval West. New York: St. Martin's

Press, 1994.