5 Recommended Books for Senior High School History Curriculum

By Alifia Afflatus Zahra

History has been one of my favorite homeschool lessons. It enlightens my mind to wander in the past, knowing the older civilizations from now, learning about how ancient people lived, and recognizing the things that occurred in the world. I like Islam history and other religion histories, world history, tribe histories, and more. I read most good history books which are informative and I won’t ever pick a low-quality book for learning history.

Since I considered that you probably may be needing recommended history books for high (home) school curriculum – here I want to give you 5 Recommended Books for Senior High School History Curriculum. Not only a-country-or-tribe-history, but also religion history and more. Which means the books I write about below, are the books with vaster aspects of history. Enjoy!

1. The Secret History of the World

The Secret History of the World is a book by Mark Booth, popularly known as Jonathan Black. This book is pretty well recommended not just because its reputation in the history world as an international bestseller, but because we will figure out many astounding things to learn. I read this book from a modern-people perspective, although this book was written by the ancient-people perspective, which tends toward esoterics. This book is dangerous, but anyway it is important to read. Many hidden stories about the history of ancient Egypt tradition, civilization, and belief, European leaders, medieval historical moments and wars, the connection of ancient Greek myth, until priesthood. These “secrets” besides changing our orientation about world history, may give enrichment about things we did not know before about the world, and religion.

2. The Island of Java

Now it’s time to introduce one of the islands in my country: Java. Perhaps Java is not well-known. But since Indonesia is this wonderful huge archipelago country – its island, Java, the most populous island in the world – is also important to learn about. Java has exquisite natural panoramas, unique ancient traditions, and many beautiful things to be seen in the island. In his manuscript, Island of Java, John Joseph Stockdale has written completely about what Java was like in around 1811, because it was published in 1811. This authentic book is recommended and this book is the first telling about the most important island in Indonesia written in English. This classic book discusses thoroughly about ecology, geography, tradition, Dutch colonials in Java, government method, the thrones of Javanese kings, Chinese ethnic in Java, and many others which occurred in the 18-19th centuries.

3. Crusade, Islam Perspective

The Crusade was a war in the East Mediterranean which occurred in the 11th century and continued to the next centuries. This war involved Islam soldiers, Shiite soldiers, and Christian soldiers from the Franks from west Europa and Near-East. Because the Crusade involved many tribes, nations and believers, definitely there are modern books about the Crusade written by a bunch of perspectives. In the West, many historians wrote about the Crusade from their perspective. But there aren’t many books about the Crusade written completely from an Islam perspective. Since history is necessary to be learnt in many perspectives, Carole Hillebrand made the masterpiece titled The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives. This book discusses the history of the Crusade from the perspective of Islam historians and soldiers themselves – about how Muslims in Middle East reacted to the invasion of Byzantium by the Franks, the impact they felt in the colonialism of Christian soldiers, and other aspects.

4. History of Religion

Religion or belief is a crucial thing a human shall hold for their life. It is also important to study about the valid history of religions in the world. Allan Menzies in his book, History of Religion A Sketch of Primitive Religious Beliefs and Practices, and of the Origin and Character of the Great Systems, explains about how the religion history started from the oldest and lowest civilization until the modern beliefs. Most of the religions of old civilization are Paganism with its various branches in the vaster world – in Middle East, in China, India, European countries, and others. Also discussed are divine religions like Islam, Nashrani (Christians) and Jew. This book is helpful for those who are curious to know how religions developed until now.

5. The CIA at Work

The last book I recommend is a book written by Lauran Paine. The history told in the book is also connected to political phenomenons in the world involving the CIA, according to the book title, The CIA at Work. Paine wrote this book and told the readers about CIA careers in the modern world. Many popular political and historical phenomenons have been discussed in this book.

So these are the 5 Recommended Books for Senior High School History Curriculum based on my version. I hope these recommendations can be advantageous for you.