SOCIAL STUDIES

History of the 20^th Century, REQUIRED — ONE of the following books:

• Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China, Jung Chang — The story of Jung Chang, her mother, her grandmother, and of 20^th-century China. The forces of history and the exceptional writing talents of Chang produce a nonfiction work with the breadth and drama of the most memorable fiction classics.
• Saints and Villains, Denise Giardina — In the charnel house that was Europe in the Second World War, there were few instances of shining moral courage, let along secular sainthood. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian and Nazi resister was the exception. This emblematic figure risked his life--and finally lost it--through his participation in a failed plot to assassinate Hitler and topple his regime. Saints and Villains gives us this exemplary life in a sweeping narrative that is bold in conception and utterly convincing in its power of imaginative reconstruction.

Local Government/Economics, REQUIRED — ONE of the following books:

• Creation of Quabbin Reservoir: Death of the Swift River Valley, J.R. Greene — A general overview of what happened in the days leading up to, and following, the creation of the Quabbin.
• Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser — Fast food has hastened the malling of our landscape, widened the chasm between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and propelled American cultural imperialism abroad. That's a lengthy list of charges, but here Eric Schlosser makes them stick with an artful mix of first-rate reportage, wry wit, and careful reasoning.
• Profiles of the Past: A Illustrated History of Ashburnham, Gardner, Hubbardston, Templeton, Westminster and Winchendon, Massachusetts, Tom Malloy
• Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money, Robert T. Kiyosaki, with Sharon L. Lechter — Rich Dad, Poor Dad is a true story on the lessons about money that Robert Kiyosaki learned from his two "dads." One dad, a Ph.D. and superintendent of education, never had enough money at the end of the month and died broke. His other dad dropped out of school at age 13 and went on to become one of the wealthiest men in Hawaii.  Rich Dad, Poor Dad  will . . .
  • Explode the myth that you need to earn a high income to become rich
  • Challenge the belief that your house is an asset
  • Show parents why they can't rely on the school system to teach their kids about money
  • Define once and for all an asset and a liability
  • Teach you what to teach your kids about money for their future financial success.

  In Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki explains how to make your money work hard for you instead of you working hard for money.

• Quabbin, the Accidental Wilderness, Thomas Conuel
• Who Moved My Cheese?, Spencer Johnson — A guide to accepting and dealing with change in work and life. Uses a parable about two little mice trying to get through a maze and looking for cheese to represent what most people go through in search of their desires.

Law, Politics, and Diplomacy, REQUIRED

• Read one news magazine (e.g., Time, Newsweek, U. S. News & World Report) each week in July and August. Write a summary (one page, single-spaced) of one lead article on national or international news in each magazine, clearly defining the issue. (8 summaries over two months).

AP U.S. History Grade 11, See Dr. Hart for required assignments.

U.S. History Grade 11 & American Studies Grade 11, REQUIRED — ONE of the following books:

• All the President's Men, Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward — Investigation and report of the burglary at Watergate that climaxed with a President's resignation.
• The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm X — If any one man articulated the anger, the struggle, and the beliefs of African Americans in the 1960s, it was Malcolm X. His autobiography is an established classic of modern America.
• Battle Cry, Leon Uris — A magnificent saga of men at war. U.S. Marine Corps who experience life in the jaws of death.
• Dispatches, Michael Herr — One of the best personal journals about war. With uncanny precision, the book sums up the very essence of the Vietnam War—its bitter humor, the dope, the body bags, the rot.
• The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck — Forced from their home, the Joad family is lured to California to find work; instead they find disillusionment, exploitation, and hunger.
• Having our Say: the Delany Sisters' First 100 Years, Sarah and A. Elizabeth Delany — Chronicles the experiences of two African-American women growing up in North Carolina at the turn-of-the-century.
• The Jungle, Upton Sinclair — A vivid portrait of life and death in a turn-of-the-century American meat-packing factory. A grim indictment that led to government regulations of the food industry,
• The Octopus, Frank Norris — This is a turn-of-the-century epic of California wheat farmers struggling against the rapacity of the Pacific and Southwestern Railroad, which will stop at nothing to extend its domination. The company controls the local paper, the land, the legislature and, when the farmers organize to protect themselves, even manages to control their representative on the state rate-fixing commission. An unremitting tale of greed and betrayal, originally intended as one-third of Norris' never-completed "Epic of the Wheat" trilogy.
• Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics, Anonymous (Joe Klein) — A former Congressional aide takes a new job with Jack Stanton, the governor of a small Southern state, who has his eye on the presidency but who has controversies and scandals surrounding him.
• The Rough Riders, Theodore Roosevelt — History of the Spanish-American War largely based on the records of Theodore Roosevelt, who trained and led the Rough Riders during the war.
• A Rumor of War, Philip Caputo — A very personal, yet universal grunt’s-eye-view of the hopeless brutality and seemingly endless horror of the American experience in Vietnam.
• Slaughterhouse-Five, or, The Children's Crusade: a Duty-dance with Death, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. — One of the world's great antiwar books, an American classic, centering on the infamous firebombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we fear most.
• Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Robert Kennedy — A recounting of the details of John Kennedy's direction of the American response to the Cuban missile crisis.
• On the Beach

U.S. History Grade 10, REQUIRED — ONE of the following books:

• The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Franklin — Written ostensibly as a letter to his son William, the autobiography offers Franklin’s reflections on philosophy and religion, politics, war, education, material success, and the status of women.
• Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West, Dee Brown — Traces the white man's conquest of the Indians of the American West, emphasizing the causes, events, and effects of the major Indian Wars leading to the symbolic end of Indian freedom at Wounded Knee.
• Confederates in the Attic : Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War, Tony Horwitz — Tony Horwitz, a former war correspondent, tells of his journeys to Civil War battlefields and the colorful people he meets along the way.
• Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville — Twenty-five-year-old Alexis de Tocqueville's account of America's social and political characteristics, which he observed in the early 1830s while visiting from France.
• The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara — A fictional account of four days in July, 1863 at the Battle of Gettysburg discussing tactics, plans, and preparations for battle from both the Northern and Southern points of view.
• The Kingdom of Matthias: a Story of Sex and Salvation in 19Th-Century America, Paul E. Johnson, Sean Wilentz — In the autumn of 1834, New York City was awash with rumors of a strange religious cult operating nearby, centered around a mysterious, self-styled prophet named Matthias. It was said that Matthias the Prophet was stealing money from one of his followers; then came reports of lascivious sexual relations, based on odd teachings of matched spirits, apostolic priesthoods, and the inferiority of women. At its climax, the rumors transformed into legal charges, as the Prophet was arrested for the murder of a once highly-regarded Christian gentleman who had fallen under his sway. By the time the story played out, it became one of the nation's first penny-press sensations, casting a peculiar but revealing light on the sexual and spiritual tensions of the day.
• In Our Defense : The Bill of Rights in Action, Ellen Alderman, Caroline Kennedy — The Bill of Rights defines and defends the freedoms we enjoy as Americans -- from the right to bear arms to the right to a civil jury. Using the dramatic true stories of people whose lives have been deeply affected by such issues as the death penalty and the right to privacy, attorneys Ellen Alderman and Caroline Kennedy reveal how the majestic priciples of the Bill of Rights have taken shape in the lives of ordinary people, as well as the historic and legal significance of each amendment. In doing so, they shed brilliant new light on this visionary document, which remains as vital and as controversial today as it was when a great nation was newly born.

Humanities 9 - See the list under ENGLISH.

World History Grade 9, REQUIRED — ONE of the following books:

• The Armada, Garrett Mattingly — This award-­winning story of the defeat of the Spanish Armada has been hailed as a historical masterpiece. The book covers Queen Elizabeth's reign over a turbulent nation, while the Duke of Parma plans the invasion of England from the Netherlands. The crucial period from February 1587 to December 1588 is presented in a series of detailed, dramatic scenes. The second part of the book is devoted to the naval battle from the first sight of the Armada off the Scilly Isles to the return of its broken remnants to the ports of Spain.
• The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown — Investigating the murder of a Louvre curator, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon and French cryptologist Sophie Neveu find clues painted into a Da Vinci work, inadvertently uncovering a plot involving the Holy Grail and the secret society known as the Priory of Sion.
• Angels and Demons, Dan Brown — World-renowned Harvard symboligist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a cryptic symbol seared into the chest of a murdered physicist. What he discovers is unimaginable: a deadly vendetta against the Catholic Church by a centuries-old underground organization - the Illuminati. Desperate to save the Vatican from a powerful time bomb, Langdon joins forces in Rome with the beautiful and mysterious scientist Vittoria Vetra. Together they embark on a frantic hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and the most secretive vault on earth . . . the long-forgotten Illuminati lair.
• Galileo's Daughter: a Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love, Dava Sobel — Chronicles the life of Galileo Galilei, focusing on his relationship with his eldest child Virginia, and explaining how she helped influence her father's work.
• Hiroshima, John Hersey — The story of six people who lived through the explosion of the atomic bomb in 1945 in Hiroshima.
• Longitude: the True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time, Dava Sobel — Story of John Harrison's forty-year quest to build the chronometer, the clock that enabled sailors to measure longitude, saving lives and fortunes.
• 1984, George Orwell — Satire on the possible horrors of a totalitarian regime in England in 1984.
• The Chosen, Chaim Potok — In 1940s Brooklyn, New York, an accident throws Reuven Malther and Danny Saunders together. Despite their differences (Reuven is a Modern Orthodox Jew with an intellectual, Zionist father; Danny is the brilliant son and rightful heir to a Hasidic rebbe), the young men form a deep, if unlikely, friendship. Together they negotiate adolescence, family conflicts, the crisis of faith engendered when Holocaust stories begin to emerge in the U.S., loss, love, and the journey to adulthood. The intellectual and spiritual clashes between fathers, between each son and his own father, and between the two young men, provide a unique backdrop for this exploration of fathers, sons, faith, loyalty, and, ultimately, the power of love.
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling — Novice wizard Harry Potter, now sixteen-years-old, begins his sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the midst of the battle between good and evil which has heated up with the return of the Dark Lord Voldemort. (available July 16, 2005)

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