A History for Peter
Series by Gerald Johnson (out of print)
Gerald Johnson has a rambling, chatty sort of tone in the style of Hendrick Van Loon. His book is less story-ish than H.E. Marshall's This Country of Ours, and a bit more political and abstract. One of the strengths of Marshall's This Country of Ours is that all its smaller stories weave themselves into a broad story, and there are threads of a main, larger picture running through even the less "necessary" chapters -- threads about heroism, and the desire for religious freedom, and self-rule, and who gets to vote, all those little quirks that once made America what it was.
Thus, this is not being suggested as a replacement for This Country of Ours, but as a supplement for the student who enjoys history and would benefit from reading this alongside. If your child does not love reading or history, please, please do not force this on top of the history you're already reading, or use this to bump out more enjoyable free reading stories.
Short Suggested Schedule
This suggested schedule is lined up to fit AO's historical terms as an overview to help with your homeschool planning; a more detailed list that schedules pages for each week that TCOO is scheduled is farther down this page.
Year 2 Term 3 about 8 pgs per scheduled reading
(Topics: 1200's-1524, geography, Europe, compass, Byzantium fell to Muslims, trade route cut off, Columbus, Vespucius, Cortez, Las Casas, Spain)
America is Born ch 1: The Unknown Land
Year 3 Term 1 about 5.5 pgs per scheduled reading
(Topics: 1497-1588, Portugal, Cabot, Luther, Reformation, William the Conqueror, John Hawkins, Spain/England, feudal system, War of Roses, Black Death, Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Philip of Spain, Frobisher, Charles Howard 1585-1619, John Hawkins, Armada, Drake)
America is Born ch 2 The People Who Won It, pg 46-80
Year 3 Term 2 about 8 pgs per scheduled reading
(Topics: 1584-1619, Francis Bacon, Raleigh, Philip Amadas, Arthur Barlowe, Virginia, Roanoke Island, John White, Virginia Dare, lost colony, Raleigh arrested, James I, Georgia, St. Augustine (Florida), Virginia, North Carolina, NYC, Nova Scotia, Robert Cecil, Cape Fear, Christopher Newport, Jamestown, Virginia, Indians, Jamestown, Christopher Newport, Virginia, gold in Mexico, John Smith, Jamestown, Pocahontas, John Smith, New England, Jamestown, work ethic, tobacco, John Rolfe, Jamestown George Yeardley, House of Burgesses, representative government)
America is Born ch 3 The English Came to Stay, pg 81-106 to 1607
America is Born ch 4 Village in the Wilderness pg 107-140 to 1619
Year 3 Term 3 about 5 pgs per scheduled reading
(Topics 1620-1680's, Edwin and George Sandys, Prostestants, Catholics, Speedwell, Pilgrims land, George Calvert (Lord Baltimore), Puritans, Pilgrims, Maryland, Cromwell, William Penn 1681, Mason Dixon, Carolinas, Charleston, Lord Granville, James Edward Oglethorpe, Georgia/Carolinas, immigrants, slaves)
America is Born ch 5 Freedom Gains and Loses pg 141-171
Year 4 Term 1 about 2.5 pgs per scheduled reading
(Topics 1500's-1713, Florida, DeSoto, deVaca, Cibola, Esteban, Fray Marcos, Coronado, Californias, French, Saint Lawrence, Nova Scotia, William Alexander, Louisiana/Cajuns, language, Europe's influence over America, Spain)
America is Born ch 6a English is Spoken Here pg 172-190
Year 4 Term 2 about 2 pgs per scheduled reading
(Topics: 1740-1771, France, England, war, French Indian War, General Braddock, Stamp Act, King George, Pitt, Burke, Fox, Boston Massacre, Regulator's War)
America is Born ch 6b English is Spoken Here pg 190-195
America is Born ch 7a The Colonies Fight pg 196-209
Year 4 Term 3 about 3 pgs per scheduled reading
(Topics: 1774, Boston Tea Party, First Continental Congress, Paul Revere, Lexington, John Adams, George Washington, Gage, Bunker Hill, Richeliu, Howe, Burgoyne, Lafayette, Clinton, Cornwallis, victory, Washington, delegates, Hamilton, Philadelphia, Congress, representatives)
America is Born ch 7b The Colonies Fight pg 210-221
America is Born ch 8 America is Born pg 224-246
Year 5 Term 1 about 7 pgs per scheduled reading
(Topics: 1781-1850, King George, peace treaty, Mount Vernon, Philadelphia, Maryland, Virginia, three branches, convention, Connecticutt Compromise, ratified, bill of rights, first president, Jefferson, Hamilton, Washington out Adams in, French Revolution, Jefferson, Aaron Burr, Industrial Revolution, James Watt, census, loom, steam engine, Napoleon, war, Star Spangled Banner, White House, Andrew Jackson, New Orleans, Hart, Benton, Jackson second term, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Tariff of Abominations)
America Grows Up ch 1 The Thirteen Quarrel pg 9-19
America Grows Up ch 2 The Thirteen Become One pg 20-41
America Grows Up ch 3 Three Great Americans pg 42-60
America Grows Up ch 4 The Wheels Begin To Turn pg 61-77
America Grows Up ch 5 Wild Man From Tennessee pg 78-90
Year 5 Term 2 about 3.3 pgs per scheduled reading
(Topics 1850-1865, Compromise of 1850, war with Mexico, Texas statehood Zachary Taylor, slavery, south, politics, Morse code, Civil War, Last battle, Grant, Lee, Douglas, Lincoln, Fort Sumter, Lincoln's cabinet, Gettysburg Address, assassination, carpetbaggers, reconstruction)
America Grows Up ch 6 Thunder Clouds pg 91-108
America Grows Up ch 7 Storm Over the Land pg 109-131
Year 5 Term 3 about 8 pgs per scheduled reading
(Topics: 1865-1917, Lee, Grant elected, railroad, Otto, Rockefeller, Standard Oil, trust, populists, William Jennings Bryan, Upton Sinclair, food laws, Carnegie, Tweed, McKinley, Throdore Roosevelt, progressive, Panama, Panama Canal started, Homestead Act, national parks, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Philippines, Moros, Pershing,Boxer Rebellion, Manchuria, Europe, Taft, Woodrow Wilson, WWI, Panama, Colombia, Mexico, Diaz, Madero, Huerta, Carranza, Wilson, Pershing, Austria, Allies, Central Power, Lusitania sunk, Germany, war)
America Grows Up ch 8 Money Grabbers and Money Givers pg 132-152
America Grows Up ch 9 Rough Riders in the White House pg 153-168
America Grows Up ch 10 Professor in Politics pg 169-186
America Grows Up ch 11 America Grows Up pg 187-211
America Moves Forward ch 1 Safe for Democracy pg 9-24
Year 6 Term 1 about 12-20 pgs per scheduled reading
(Topics: 1917-1952? WWI, League of Nations, Big Three (Clemeceau, Wilson, George), Covenant of League of Nations, Henry Cabot Lodge, Wilson stroke, Article Ten, Russia Czar, Russia, Rasputin, Kerensky, Czar, Wilson, Ulyanov, Lenin, Marx, Lenin, Bolsheviks, German War, Communism, Trotsky, German emperor, Republican Convention, Thomas Miller, Harding, Teapot Dome, Elk Hills, 1923 Harding died, Coolidge, Tammany Hall, John W. Davis, Anti-Saloon league; prohibition, Wayne B. Wheeler, Democratic Convention, Simmons, KKK, Clarke, KKK, Al Smit, John W. Davis, election, John Maynard Keynes, Russia, Hoover, Franklin Roosevelt, Harding, Hoover, great panic, Treaty of Versailles, Germany, Italy, Mussolini, Wilhelm, Mussolini, Hitler, Brown Shirts, Hitler, Germany, Herrenvolk, Great Panic, banks closed, Roosevelt, 'nothing to fear but fear itself', election, New Deal, Brain Trust, New Deal, welfare state, totalitarianism, imperialism, bubonic plague, Germany, Hitler, isolationists, Petain, Atlantic Charter, Hitler, Churchill, Pearl Harbor, MacArthur, Bataan Peninsula, Japan, Stalingrad, Hitler, Pacific, more WWII, MacArthur, Wainwright, William Nimitz, Eisenhower, Churchill, prime minister, Germans, Africa, Casablanca, Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Marshall, Rommel, Eisenhower, Germany, D Day, Aachen, Manila, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Hiroshima, end of WWII, armistice, Germany, Pershing, Berlin, Churchill,Roosevelt, New Deal, Fireside chat, United Nations, Truman, scientists, Fermi, Szilard, splitting the atom, bomb test, Los Alamos, Hiroshima, communism, United Nations, Churchill, Stalin, Yalta, Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, Point Four, NATO, North Korea, Wake Island, MacArthur, America of Today, threat of Russia, hope)
America Moves Forward ch 2 Humanity Fails pg 25-52
America Moves Forward ch 3 Force or Freedom pg 53-68
America Moves Forward ch 4 Dark Days pg 69-99
America Moves Forward ch 5 Black Shirts and Brown Shirts pg 100-116
America Moves Forward ch 6 Nothing to Fear pg 117-141
America Moves Forward ch 7 The Contagion of Tyranny pg 142-163
America Moves Forward ch 8 The Agony of War pg 164-189
America Moves Forward ch 9 FDR pg 190-206
America Moves Forward ch 10 The Mushroom Cloud pg 207-221
America Moves Forward ch 11 Five Important Decisons pg 225-241
America Moves Forward ch 12 United We Stand pg pg 242-248
A History for Peter Series: More Detailed Schedule
Year 2 Term 3
week 33: America is Born: Ch 1 The Unknown Land (pg 13-25 to "to help them find new kingdoms." Spread over a couple of readings; suggested dividing place: after "something like a very fancy T.")
week 34: America is Born: Ch 1 The Unknown Land (pg 25-32 from "When Prince Henry died" to "learn more in a small ship.")
week 35: America is Born: Ch 1 The Unknown Land (pg 32-39 from "At the same time, the idea of crossing" to "which soon became America.")
week 36: America is Born (pg 39-45 from "By the time the truth was" to end of ch 1.)
Year 3 Term 1
week 2: America is Born: Ch 2 The People Who Won It (pg 46-51 to "not easily turned about.")
week 4: America is Born: Ch 2 The People Who Won It (pg 51-56 from "So in the beginning the Spanish" to "the feudal system was going to pieces.")
week 6: America is Born: Ch 2 The People Who Won It (pg 56-63 from "In England it was almost completely" to "seize her kingdom if they could.")
week 8: America is Born: Ch 2 The People Who Won It (pg 63-68 from "At the time when she was queen" to "true of a great many things.")
week 10: America is Born: Ch 2 The People Who Won It (pg 68-73 from "To understand how Drake and the queen" to "they were famous men.")
week 12: America is Born: Ch 2 The People Who Won It (pg 73-80 from "On the other hand, the Lord" to end of ch 2.)
Year 3 Term 2
week 13: America is Born: Ch 3 The English Came to Stay (pg 81-86 to "by sending someone else.")
week 14: America is Born: Ch 3 The English Came to Stay (pg 86-90 from "In 1584 he hired" to "The Indians called it Roanoke.")
week 15: America is Born: Ch 3 The English Came to Stay (pg 90-95 from "Roanoke Island had several advantages" to "radio to find out where they were.")
week 17: America is Born: Ch 3 The English Came to Stay (pg 95-99 from "Altogether, it was more than two years" to America was already well started.")
week 18: America is Born: Ch 3 The English Came to Stay (pg 99-106 from "The businessmen of those days" to end of ch 3.)
week 19: America is Born: Ch 4 Village in the Wilderness (pg 107-112 to "bark which shed rain water.")
week 20: America is Born: Ch 4 Village in the Wilderness (pg 112-117 from "It all sounds very flimsy" to "when he started back to England.")
week 21: America is Born: Ch 4 Village in the Wilderness (pg 117-122 from "But there were a few among them" to "thereafter went out with the rest.")
week 22: America is Born: Ch 4 Village in the Wilderness (pg 122-127 from "The other is one of his own yarns" to "stand up against hurricanes.")
week 23: America is Born: Ch 4 Village in the Wilderness (pg 127-132 from "In Jamestown were many" to "The queen laughed and paid up.")
week 24: America is Born: Ch 4 Village in the Wilderness (pg 132-140 from "The demand for tobacco" to end of ch 4.)
Year 3 Term 3
week 23: America is Born: Ch 5 Freedom Gains and Loses (pg 141-145 to "affairs, especially their religion.")
week 27: America is Born: Ch 5 Freedom Gains and Loses (pg 145-150 from "By this time the people" to "bothered by anybody else.")
week 29: America is Born: Ch 5 Freedom Gains and Loses (pg 150-155 from "Besides that, he knew" to "treated as heretics by the police.")
week 31: America is Born: Ch 5 Freedom Gains and Loses (pg 155-160 from "These people had two main ideas." to "since tolerance is a Quaker principle.")
week 33: America is Born: Ch 5 Freedom Gains and Loses (pg 160-165 from "The fifty years that had passed" to "regarded as the right kind of lives.")
week 35: America is Born: Ch 5 Freedom Gains and Loses (pg 165-171 from "One hundred and twenty-five years" to end of ch 5.)
Year 4 Term 1
week 1: America is Born: Ch 6 English is Spoken Here (pg 172-174 to "which it has been called ever since.")
week 2: America is Born: Ch 6 English is Spoken Here (pg 174-176 from "A few years later there came Hernando" to "where the city of Tallahassee is now.")
week 3: America is Born : Ch 6 English is Spoken Here(pg 176-177 from "By that time, he had deserted" to "he had just started walking.")
week 4: America is Born: Ch 6 English is Spoken Here (pg 177-178 from "Among other things the two men" to "as the Spaniards counted wealth.")
week 5: America is Born: Ch 6 English is Spoken Here (pg 178-179 from "However, when the two survivors" to "in New Mexico or Arizona.")
week 6: America is Born: Ch 6 English is Spoken Here (pg 179-181 from "This was the end of the road" to "still remembered for that reason.")
week 7: America is Born: Ch 6 English is Spoken Here (pg 181-182 from "The three great nations" to "for more than a hundred years.")
week 8: America is Born: Ch 6 English is Spoken Here (pg 183-184 from "In 1621, seventeen" to "great many first-class fighting men.")
week 9: America is Born: Ch 6 English is Spoken Here (pg 184-186 from "So the English did a very cruel" to "sadly sentimental verse.")
week 10: America is Born: Ch 6 English is Spoken Here (pg 186-187 from For many years" to "but no other language.")
week 11: America is Born: Ch 6 English is Spoken Here (pg 187-188 from "To understand how English" to by what happened in Europe.")
week 12: America is Born: Ch 6 English is Spoken Here (pg 187-190 from "As far as fighting is concerned" to "sank gradually lower and lower.")
Year 4 Term 2
week 14: America is Born: Ch 6 English is Spoken Here (pg 190-195 from "By 1750 Spain was" to end of ch 6.)
week 15: Take a break.)
week 16: America is Born: Ch 7 The Colonies Fight (pg 196-198 to "is now a great American city.")
week 17: America is Born: Ch 7 The Colonies Fight (pg 198-199 from "Even where there was a road" to "handled the matter.")
week 18: America is Born: Ch 7 The Colonies Fight (pg 199-201 from "At this time all the counties" to "what the colonist was talking about.")
week 19: America is Born: Ch 7 The Colonies Fight (pg 201-202 from "This was really the root" to "allow them short of hanging."")
week 20: America is Born: Ch 7 The Colonies Fight (pg 202-204 from "To top it all, in 1760" to "rebellion against the king.")
week 21: America is Born: Ch 7 The Colonies Fight (pg 204-208 from "One great mistake that Parliament" to "got very hot indeed.")
week 22: America is Born: Ch 7 The Colonies Fight (pg 208-211 from "Still not understanding what" to "every thousand Americans today.")
week 23: America is Born Take a break.)
week 24: America is Born Take a break.)
Year 4 Term 3
week 25: America is Born: Ch 7 The Colonies Fight continue ch 7 (pg 211-213 from "Their quarrel with Great Britain" to most people gave it up.")
week 26: America is Born: Ch 7 The Colonies Fight (pg 214-215 from "Still, when people have believed anything" to "Prescott's, if any one man's.")
week 27: America is Born: Ch 7 The Colonies Fight (pg 215-218 from "In the meantime the British" to "not the shot, is the cause.")
week 28: America is Born: Ch 7 The Colonies Fight (pg 218-221 from "After the fight on April 19" to "Americans ran out of gunpowder.")
week 29: America is Born: Ch 7 The Colonies Fight (pg 221-224 from "With our strange habit" to end of ch 7)
week 30: America is Born: Ch 8 America is Born (pg 224-228 to "had sent to oppose him.")
week 31: America is Born: Ch 8 America is Born (pg 228-231 from "All this time the nations of Europe" to "and they had Cornwallis.")
week 32: America is Born: Ch 8 America is Born (pg 231-235 from "For three weeks he put up" to "in the world he did want.")
week 33: America is Born: Ch 8 America is Born (pg 235-238 from "Most historians agree that George" to "above every other American.")
week 34: America is Born: Ch 8 America is Born (pg 238-241 from "We have spoken of the war" to "North Carolina line to the Great Lakes.")
week 35: America is Born: Ch 8 America is Born (pg 241-244 from "There were still very few white" to "without paying duty.")
week 36: America is Born: Ch 8 America is Born (pg 244-246 from "That being done--" to end of ch 8, end of book.)
Year 5 Term 1
week 1: America Grows Up: Ch 1 The Thirteen Quarrel (pg 9-19 (entire chapter))
week 2: America Grows Up: Ch 2 The Thirteen Become One (pg 20-27 to "what they needed and wanted.")
week 3: America Grows Up: Ch 2 The Thirteen Become One (pg 27-34 from "In any case, the people" to "goods from another state.")
week 4: America Grows Up: Ch 2 The Thirteen Become One (pg 34-41 from "There remained the really tough problem--" to end of ch 2.)
week 5: America Grows Up: Ch 3 Three Great Americans (pg 42-48 to "government the shape it still has.")
week 6: America Grows Up: Ch 3 Three Great Americans (pg 48-55 from "The point at which they disagreed" to "has been proved to be dangerous.")
week 7: America Grows Up: Ch 3 Three Great Americans (pg 55-61 from "Jefferson and his friends were strongly" to end of ch 3.)
week 8: America Grows Up: Ch 4 The Wheels Begin To Turn (pg 62-68 to "more wagons faster and faster.")
week 9: America Grows Up: Ch 4 The Wheels Begin To Turn (pg 68-73 from "The very first railroads" to "with Great Britain in 1812.")
week 10: America Grows Up: Ch 4 The Wheels Begin To Turn (pg 73-77 from "It turned out badly." to end of ch 4.)
week 11: America Grows Up: Ch 5 Wild Man From Tennessee (pg 77-84 to "since the days of Thomas Jefferson.")
week 12: America Grows Up: Ch 5 Wild Man From Tennessee (pg 82-90 from "They were so angry that" to end of ch 5)
Year 5 Term 2
week 13: America Grows Up: Ch 6 Thunder Clouds (pg 91-94 to "ever fought by an American general.")
week 14: America Grows Up: Ch 6 Thunder Clouds (pg 94-97 from "People in this country who" to "they thought it was a bad system.")
week 15: America Grows Up: Ch 6 Thunder Clouds (pg 97-100 from "Slavery had been bad from" to "another slave into the United States.")
week 16: America Grows Up: Ch 6 Thunder Clouds (pg 100-105 from "At that time nobody, except" to "they have remained to this day.")
week 17: America Grows Up: Ch 6 Thunder Clouds (pg 105-108 from "John Marshall, Thomas Jefferson" to end of ch 6.)
week 18: America Grows Up: Ch 7 Storm Over the Land (pg 109-114 to "surrendered on April 9, 1865.")
week 19: America Grows Up: Ch 7 Storm Over the Land (pg 114-116 from "In the meantime General" to "done on a farm in those days.")
week 20: America Grows Up: Ch 7 Storm Over the Land (pg 116-118 from "His mother died" to "to think about what he said.")
week 21: America Grows Up: Ch 7 Storm Over the Land (pg 118-121 from "The Republican party at that time" to "The confusion was complete.")
week 22: America Grows Up: Ch 7 Storm Over the Land (pg 122-125 from "What pulled them together" to "for another two years.")
week 23: America Grows Up: Ch 7 Storm Over the Land (pg 125-1287 from "The greatest thing that Abraham Lincoln" to with charity for all."")
week 24: America Grows Up: Ch 7 Storm Over the Land (pg 128-131 from "Lincoln's murder opened the way" to end of ch 7.)
Year 5 Term 3
week 25: America Grows Up: Ch 8 Money Grabbers and Money Givers (pg 132-141 to "perhaps in the entire world.")
week 26: America Grows Up: Ch 8 Money Grabbers and Money Givers (pg 141-152 from "The same kind of thing happened" to end of ch 8.)
week 27: America Grows Up: Ch 9 Rough Rider in the White House (pg 154-161 to found that they had a leader.")
week 28: America Grows Up: Ch 9 Rough Rider in the White House (pg 161-169 from "Most of these men were from" to end of ch 9.)
week 29: America Grows Up: Ch 10 Professor in Politics (pg 170-178 to "who believed in Hamilton's ideas.")
week 30: America Grows Up: Ch 10 Professor in Politics (pg 178-186 from "The Secretary of the Interior had" to end of ch 10.)
week 31: America Grows Up: Ch 11 America Grows Up (pg 187-194 to "were before the Americans came.")
week 32: America Grows Up: Ch 11 America Grows Up (pg 194-200 from "But look at it from the Mexicans'" to "gain most at least cost.")
week 33: America Grows Up: Ch 11 America Grows Up (pg 200-205 from "Most Americans had a very dim idea" to "beyond the control of any man.")
week 34: America Grows Up: Ch 11 America Grows Up (pg 205-211 from "After the sinking of the Lusitania" to end of ch 11, end of book.)
week 35: America Moves Forward: Ch 1 Safe for Democracy (pg 9-17 to "much good on the actual field of battle.")
week 36: America Moves Forward: Ch 1 Safe for Democracy (pg 17-24 from "The foreign idea about Americans" to end of ch 1.)
Year 6 Term 1
week 1: America Moves Forward: Ch 2 Humanity Fails (pg 25-52)
week 2: America Moves Forward: Ch 3 Force or Freedom (pg 53-68)
week 3: America Moves Forward: Ch 4 Dark Days (pg 69-83 to "against the Ku Klux Klan.")
week 4: America Moves Forward: Ch 4 Dark Days (pg 83-99 from "The fight over the Klan" to end of ch 4)
week 5: America Moves Forward: Ch 5 Black Shirts and Brown Shirts (pg 100-116)
week 6: America Moves Forward: Ch 6 Nothing to Fear (pg 117-141)
week 7: America Moves Forward: Ch 7 The Contagion of Tyranny (pg 142-155 to "And that is where we came in.")
week 8: America Moves Forward: Ch 7 and 8 (pg 156-173 from "The war of 1941-45 was the longest" to end of ch 7.)
week 9: America Moves Forward: Ch 8 The Agony of War (pg 173-189)
week 10: America Moves Forward: Ch 9 FDR (pg 190-206)
week 11: America Moves Forward: Ch 10 The Mushroom Cloud (pg 207-224)
week 12: America Moves Forward: Ch 11 Five Important Decisons, 12 United We Stand (pg pg 225-248)
Year 6 Term 2 starts ancient history