This Country of Ours, Part 2

This Series, in seven parts, tells the story of America from the earliest founding through the days of Woodrow Wilson and The Great War (World War I). In Part 2, you'll hear stories of the settlement of the Virginia Colony

Table of Contents:
1. The Adventures of Captain John Smith
2. More Adventures of Captain John Smith
3. How the Colony Was Saved
4. How Pocahontas Took a Journey Over the Seas
5. How the Redmen Fought Against Their White Brothers
6. How Englishmen Fought a Duel with Tyranny
7. The Coming of the Cavaliers
8. Bacon's Rebellion
9. The Story of the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe

AUTHOR
Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall (1867 - 1941) was a British author, most famous for her works of history for children.

For decades, Marshall's books were ubiquitous in schools and home libraries. Much of the popularity of her works stems from her talent for making history read like good storytelling.

COMMENTARY
Reviews for Alcazar AudioWorks' production of This Country of Ours, Part 2
If you want to get the flavor of This Country of Ours, you can find it online as a free e-text. I like having it as an audiobook, as we can listen to the CD together or my students can listen when I'm busy with something else. The readings are divided into tracks, making it easy to break up the reading and have the listeners tell back (or narrate) what they've heard.

Part Two: Stories of Virginia is comprised of chapters 13 to 21 of This Country of Ours. You'll hear of Captain John Smith, Pocahontas, the Virginia colony with its all-but-useless gentlemen adventurers, the ancestors of Washington and other Founding Fathers of note, and more. Indeed, there's a lot more history here than I learned in school, such as Bacon's rebellion and Spotswood's exploration, as well as the coming of the Hugenots, the Irish, and the Germans to Virginia.

Two readers alternate, helping to keep the listener's attention, and they read in a lively manner, adding interest to an already interesting story. These are the sorts of tales that make for vivid re-enactments later, especially of battles and thrilling adventures.

One note of caution: As This Country of Ours was published in 1917, it does not meet today's standards of political correctness. For example, Native Americans are variously referred to as ""savages,"" ""Indians,"" and ""Redmen."" We use this sort of reference as a jumping off place for discussion. In any event, the author is not one to gloss over the failings of the Europeans in this history, laying out in painstaking detail flaws as well as heroic deeds on the part of all the participants in the telling. The author draws from original sources such as journals and letters, and history is neither romanticized nor sanitized for the modern student.

This Country of Ours is one of the books used in the Ambleside Online curriculum. The sets correspond to the divisions within the book, rather than Ambleside Online years. However, it is not difficult to figure out which set(s) are needed, if you compare the chapter listings on Alcazar's and Ambleside's websites.

Whether or not you are using Ambleside Online's reading list, you'll find This Country of Ours a fascinating look at early American History. Highly recommended.
Reviewed By: Virginia Jones - Eclectic Homeschool Online
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