I have a confession to make. One of the really cool things I'm enjoying about homeschooling in general, and teaching my kids history in particular, is that I get to learn right along with them. I'm playing a bit of a trick on them: I stay just enough ahead to maintain my credibility as their teacher. Truth is, I'm really their fellow-student. That's one reason the Famous Men series and their companion guides from Greenleaf Press are so helpful to me. Short, informative chapters that quickly capture the story of history as lived through the lives of influential individuals. In my opinion, biography is at least as important as event, because biography lets us in on the "why" and "how" of history more effectively than covering dates and events. And isn't that what we most need to know? Famous Men of Rome is faithful to this vision of learning history through biography. There are thirty chapters covering over 29 people and 11 centuries, from the legendary founding of Rome to its slow unraveling in the early centuries after Christ. Each chapter is a fascinating read. For those who plan to use Famous Men of Rome in teaching their children, I recommend also getting the Greenleaf Guide to Famous Men of Rome. It provides ideas, discussion questions, of most help to me, comprehensive lists of additional resources. I also recommend Laurie Carlson's Classical Kids and The Classical Companion, by Charles F. Baker III and Rosalie F. Baker. They will help you transport your children back to the days of ancient Rome and Greece. My children, who admittedly are avid readers, love these books. So does their father.

Famous Men of Rome continues to effectively introduce children to ancient history.

The author states in the 1904 preface: "The former practice in many elementary schools of beginning the detailed study of American history without any previous knowledge of general history limited the pupil's range of vision, restricted his sympathies, and left him without material for comparisons. Moreover, it denied to him a knowledge of his inheritance from the Greek philosopher, the Roman lawgiver, the Teutonic lover of freedom."

Your child will be captured by the fable of Romulus and Remus. He or she will wonder at Cincinnatus who chose to be a farmer rather than a dictator. And your child will admire Marcus Aurelius, a noble emperor who lived simply, used his own money to help the poor, and walked the streets greeting people and listening to their troubles so he could be a better leader.

Older students may read Plutarch but elementary children will gained a foundation for history by reading about "Famous Men."

A great introduction to control theory.However, it would help if you know something about differential equations. I read Ogata's book on control (over 900 pages) from cover to cover twice and still could not figure out exactly what state variables are. This book explains things very well but you do need to do the problems at the end of each chapter. The use of "free-body" diagrams is a great idea.Ogata's book is great for explaining a lot of the details but this book explains the important things in a concise but easy to understand manner. I now finally understand how to draw a system diagram by starting from the inputs for each separate system. Everything is brought together -- system diagrams,transfer functions,state variables,the purpose for LaPlace transforms,and input-output models. This is not a book about control theory and it is covered in only the last two chapters but if you are taking, or going to take, a course in control theory,read this book first. It will save you a lot of frustration and bewilderment.

Hilarious! John Goodman and Kelsey Grammar are at their best. The twists that Edgar takes in this play are creative and incredibly funny.

I'm using this book for my son's third grade Bible program. It's fast moving and fun, yet very extensive with weekly memory verses and step by step bible reading and questions about the child's own walk with the Lord. It puts the child in the role of a movie director researching Jesus' life for a movie. There are lots of study questions, as well as games and puzzles to make it really interesting. Third grade is the very youngest I would have a child doing this study, in fact we are taking 2 weeks to do each weekly unit, and it would be just as interesting for an older child up through jr. high.

This work is part of the "Famous Men" series brilliantly done by Greenleaf Press. Each book has a focus of a particular time period with short biographies, and stories of those times. Some are legendary, but many of the legends do have basis in fact. We are not full-fledged historians, either by academic training or career pursuit, but have found these books to be a thrill to define the culture and thought of the time period. The primary challenge has been to keep the books in hand, as the kids love them and "borrow" them. It is fun since the stories are short and can be acted out, or built with Legos, or enjoyed in any learning style. They are also easy to use, with questions for each lesson which you can discuss. For younger children(3rd-6th grades)it is a new experince, older children(7th-12th grades) like the adult style of learning via discussion. In our experience, it can be helpful to get the small group of books that comes each "Famous Men" book, which will give you more information (and neat things to do)in that time period.Each book is a treat both visually and in the text.

We used _Famous Men of Greece_ and the accompanying _Greenleaf Guide to Famous Men of Greece_ to teach ancient Greek history to our elementary age children. They loved it! The style is very story-like and makes a great read-aloud. It cover Greek mythology, legendary historical characters, and all of the traditional famous men I wanted our children to know about. Although we are extremely conservative Christians, I found nothing objectionable in the book. I think one of the other reviewers must be talking about another book!

This title gave our children a real love for history. They begged for another lesson! One day my husband came home to find them playing the Battle of Thermopylae with their Lego men :-) I can not recommend the Greenleaf series highly enough for "real history" and memorable studies.

We are a homeschooling family and we have thoroughly enjoyed the "Famous Men" series for our world history studies. I highly recommend it! The "Famous Men" books are core texts and the study guides have helpful questions, vocabulary words, project ideas and recommendations of other great books to expand the study. The "Famous Men" books were written in 1904. Greenleaf Press has republished them and written study guides to go with them. Contrary to the insinuation in a previous review, the "Famous Men" books are not in use in the New York public school system unless an individual teacher chooses to provide her students with a classical education. Frankly, we chuckled at the pornography charge of the previous review. It is a bit of a stretch.

This is one of the most engaging history books I've ever read. The authors concentrate only on the facts and occurrences which really matter; the book was rarely boring. And it still manages to supply a sufficient amount of information. The only negative I perceived was that with the way the book is organized, with each chapter focusing on a different person, rather than period, was that it was disjointed, and virtually impossible to follow the big picture, the "story", if you will. However, this detracts very little from the book, which is an excellent source if you are interested in going in-depth on specific people, this book provides overviews for about 30 different people.

My children loved studying the Middle Ages, and this book was an effective (and non-threatening) way to introduce them to it. The Famous Men series uses short biographies to illustrate the era studied. As with the others in the series, Famous Men of the Middle Ages proved to be understandable to my third grader and informative for my seventh grader. All my children found the stories entertaining. In helping kids study this era, I also recommend: Days of Knights and Damsels by Laurie M. Carlson for fun, informative, and hands-activities and articles. The Greenleaf Guide to Famous Men of the Middle Ages, which provides discussion starters, a few activities and a listing of additional resources.

The "Famous Men" series continues to inform and inspire children by relating biographies of people from the Middle Ages.

Included in the 34 chapters are stories of: Attila, Justinian, Mohammed, Charlemagne, Alfred, El Cid, Robert Bruce and William Wallace, Joan of Arc, and Gutenberg.

"Famous Men of the Middle Ages" is a great introduction to this era that is often skimmed through. Allow your child to linger and delved more deeply when sparked by one of these stories.

Mizlansky/Zilinsky sounds like it would be good. Nathan lane and Paul Sand are 2 well-respected actors who you'd think would create something to look forward to. But instead, the series is crude, rude, and very unfunny. Other then a few funny antics from Nathan Lane, including some lines, the show is very bland and leads to a road of nowhere.

Absolutely hilarious play, with great acting by a terrific cast. The plot is funny, and the dialogue is funnier. What made this very special for me was the format -- a "live" audio theater performance. It was like being on Broadway. A great experience.

The superb cast bringing Jon Baitz' dark comedy of sleazy Hollywood producer Davis Mizlansky and his problems with ex-spouses, colleagues, customers, and the IRS to life includes Nathan Lane, Paul Sand, Julie Kavner, Samantha, Harry Shearer, Richard Masur; Rob Morrow, Grant Shaud, Kurtwood Smith, and Robert Walden. Ably directed by Ron West, this superbly produced, 106 minute, two cassette unabridged comedy was recorded before a live audience and offers a terrific listening experience enhanced with a full course of sound effects. Mizlansky/Zilinsky will prove a popular and entertaining addition to any personal, drama school, or community library audiobook/audioplay collection.