A couple of years ago I stumbled on a set of dusty hardback books at my local library book sale: The History of the English Speaking Peoples by Winston Churchill. For $4, it was worth my time. Now I realize what a goldmine I found. (My copies are first-edition, too!)
After Nazi Germany was defeated, Winston Churchill was able to complete a project that he had begun before the war: compiling the complete history of England and its people. WOW. What a project! He did it, and did it well. It’s a fascinating, easy read. It’s the history of England as one long story, and the tales of its people as they migrate around the world. I love it so much that I also downloaded it on Audible and listen to it there, as well.
The first time I read throughVolume 1 I thought, “This book could be an ongoing history text for my kids. And my friends’ kids! And my website audience!” The wheels were spinning. I started taking detailed notes. And making timelines. It was awesome.
Two important notes about Churchill’s writing: he acknowledges the huge influence of Christianity on the people when it’s present, and the detrimental effects on the people when it is squelched. He also points out the dangers of Islam. You can read some of his thoughts on Islam here.
As I went through, I recalled some stories that were based on the actual events. These stories were written by G. A. Henty. If you’re not familiar with Henty, stop what you’re doing right now and look him up. His books are wonderful historic novels “written for boys” in the 19th century. He wrote stories that cover all of history. Each book has a young, fictional boy as the main character, surrounded by actual events and people. The stories are exciting. And clean. And I love them.
So, my notes on Churchill’s books included the Henty books that corresponded to the history timelines. I then realized I could build a curriculum around these two authors that would cover hundreds of years of history. And that’s what lead to this post.
I am about to begin my third co-op class for our area homeschool group based on this grand plan. Each class includes a complete study written by me. Those unit studies are (and will be) available for free on this website. (Typing them up takes time; bear with me.) This post will give a basic outline of Churchill’s book and the Henty novels that correspond. Where possible, I will include my own unit study of that book or time period, or links to others on the web.
Parents, this is a nearly free way to get a great history curriculum for middle- and high schoolers. All of the books I mention are free on Kindle and Gutenberg.org. You can also buy the books, of course, in print and audio versions.
Many audio versions are available FREE with your Audible membership. A few have been produced as theatrical audio versions.
Churchill’s books begins in 55 B.C., so that is where this timeline begins. (Henty wrote books covering all of world history, but I’m only including the titles that coincide with Churchill’s book.)
The History of the English Speaking Peoples
Volume 1: The Birth of Britain
“Our story centeres in an island, not widely sundered from the Continent, and so tilted that its mountains lie all to the west and north, while south and east is a gently undulating landscape of wooded valleys, open downs, and slow rivers. It is very accessible to the invader, whether he comes in peace or war, as pirate or merchant, conqueror or missionary. Those who dwelt there are not insensitive to any shift of power, and change of faith, or even fashion, on the mainland, but they give to every practice, every doctrine that comes to it from abroad, its own particular turn and imprint…
Every nation or group of nations has its own tale to tell. Knowledge of the trials and struggles is necessary to all who would comprehend the problems, perils, challenges, and opportunities which confront us today…It is in the hope that contemplation of the trials and tribulations of our forefathers may not only fortify the English-speaking peoples of today, but also play some small part in uniting the whole world, that I present this account.” – Winston Churchill, January 15, 1956 (Preface)
Book 1: The Island Race
- I. Britannia
- II. Subjugation (Beric the Briton – A Story of the Roman Invasion – Henty)
- III. The Roman Province
- IV. The Lost Island
- V. England
- VI. The Vikings
- VII. Alfred the Great (The Dragon and the Raven – The Days of King Alfred – Henty)
- VII. The Saxon Dusk (Wulf the Saxon – A Tale of the Norman Conquest, Henty)
Book 2: The Making of the Nation
- IX. The Norman Invasion (Wulf the Saxon, A Tale of the Norman Conquest continued – Henty)
- Wulf the Saxon Study Guide **NEW!**
- X. William the Conqueror
- XI. Growth and Turmoil
- XII. Henry Plantagenet
- XIII. The English Common Law
- XIV. Coeur de Lion (Winning His Spurs – A Tale of the Crusades – Henty )
- Study Guide coming soon!
- XV. Magna Carta
- XVI. On the Anvil
- XVII. The Mother of Parliaments
- XVIII. King Edward the I
- XIX. Bannockburn (In Freedom’s Cause – A Story of Wallace and Bruce – Henty)
- XX. Scotland and Ireland
- XXI. The Long-Bow (St. George for England – A Tale of Cressy and Poitiers – Henty)
- XXII. The Black Death
Book 3: The End of the Feudal Age
- XXIII. Richard II and the Social Revolt
- XXIV. The Usurpation of Henry Bolingroke
- XXV. The Empire of Henry V (At Agincourt – A Tale of the White Hoods of Paris – Henty)
- XXVI. Joan of Arc
- XXVII. York and Lancaster
- XXVII. The Wars of the Roses (A Knight of the White Cross – A Tale of the Seige of Rhodes – Henty)
- XXIX. The Adventures of Edward IV
- XXX. Richard III
Volume II: The New World
“For the first time in the course of the fifteenth century men began to refer to the preceding millennium as the Middle Ages. Though much that was medieval survived in their minds, men felt they were living on the brink of a new and modern age. It was an age marked not only by splendid achievements in art and architecture, but also by the beginnings of a revolution in science associated with the name of Copernicus. That the earth moved round the sun, as he conclusively proved and Galileo later asserted on a celebrated occasion, was a noble idea that was to have a profound effect upon the human outlook…
While the forces of Renaissance and Reformation were gathering strength in Europe the world beyond was ceaselessly yielding its secrets to European explorers, traders, and missionaries. From the days of the ancient Greeks some men had known in theory that the world was round. Now in the sixteenth century navigations were to prove it so.” – Preface, The New World
Book 4: Renaissance and Reformation
- I. The Round World
- II. The Tudor Dynasty
- III. King Henry VIII
- IV. Cardinal Wolsey
- V. The Break with Rome
- VI. The End of the Monasteries
- VII. The Protestant Struggle
- VIII. Good Queen Bess
- IX. The Spanish Armada (Under Drake’s Flag – A Tale of the Spanish Main – Henty)
- X. Gloriana
Book 5: The Civil War
- XI. The United Crowns
- XII. The Mayflower
- XIII. Charles I and Buckingham
- XIV. The Personal Rule
- XV. The Revolt of Parliament
- XVI. The Great Rebellion (Friends Though Divided: A Tale of the English Civil War – Henty)
- XVII. The Marston Moor and Naseby
- XVIII. The Axe Falls
Book 6: The Restoration
- XIX. The English Republic
- XX. The Lord Protector
- XXI. The Restoration
- XXII. The Merry Monarch (When London Burned: A Story of Restoration Times and the Great Fire – Henty)
- XXIII. The Popish Plot
- XXIV. Whig and Tory
- XXV. The Catholic King (John Hawke’s Fortune: A Story of Monmouth’s Rebellion – Henty)
- XXVI. The Revolution of 1688
Volume III: The Age of Revolution (1688-1815)
Book 7: England’s Advance to World Power
- I. William of Orange (Orange and Green: A Tale of Boyne and Limerick – Henty)
- II. Continental War
- III. The Spanish Succession
- IV. Marlborough: Blenheim and Ramilies (The Cornet of Horse: A Tale of Marlborough’s Wars- Henty)
- V. Oudenarde and Malplaquet (The Bravest of the Brave: With Peterborough in Spain – Henty )
- VI. The Treaty of Utrecht
Book 8: The First British Empire
- VII. The House of Hanover
- VIII. Sir Robert Walpole
- IX. The Austrian Succession and the “Forty-Five”
- X. The American Colonies
- XI. The First World War (With Wolfe in Canada: Or, the Winning of a Continent – Henty)
- XII. The Quarrel With America
- XII. The War of Independence (True to the Old Flag: A Tale of the American War of Independence – Henty)
- XIV. The United States
- XV. The Indian Empire (With Clive in India: Or, the Beginnings of an Empire – Henty)
Book 9: Napoleon
- XVI. The Younger Pitt
- XVII. The American Constitution
- XVIII. The French Revolution (In the Reign of Terror: A Story of the French Revolution – Henty)
- XIX. France Confronted (No Surrender: A Tale of the Rising in La Vendee – Henty)
- XX. Trafalgar
- XXI. The Emperor of the French
- XXII. The Peninsular War and the Fall of Napoleon (The Young Bulgers: A Tale of the Peninsula War – Henty)
- XXIII. Washington, Adams, and Jefferson
- XXIV. The War of 1812
- XXV. Elba and Waterloo (One of the 28th: A Tale of Waterloo – Henty)
Volume 4: The Great Democracies (1815 – 1900)
“THE DOWNFALL OF NAPOLEON IN 1815 LEFT BRITAIN IN UNCHALLENGED dominion over a large portion of the globe. France and indeed the whole continent of Europe was exhausted. A United Germany had not yet arisen and Italy still lay in fragments. Russia was withdrawing from Western Europe. The Spanish and Portuguese peoples were busy in their peninsula and in their tropical possessions overseas. In the following decades revolution and civil commotion smote many of the Powers of Europe, and new nations were born. Britain alone escaped almost unscathed from these years of unrest. There was an unparalleled expansion of the English-speaking peoples both by birth and emigration.
The break between Britain and America made by the American Revolution was neither complete nor final. Intercourse continued and grew across the Atlantic. While America devoted her energies to the settlement of half of the North American continent, Britain began to occupy and develop many vacant portions of the globe. The Royal Navy maintained an impartial rule over the oceans which shielded both communities from the rivalry and interference of the Old World.
The colonisation of Australia and New Zealand, and the acquisition of South Africa in the decline of Holland, created the new and wider British Empire still based upon sea-power and comprising a fifth of the human race, over which Queen Victoria, in the longest reign of British history, presided. In this period moral issues arising from Christian ethics became prominent. The slave trade, from which Britain had so shamelessly profited in the past, was suppressed by the Royal Navy. By a terrible internal struggle, at the cost of nearly a million lives, slavery was extirpated from the United States; above all, the Union was preserved.
The nineteenth century was a period of purposeful, progressive, enlightened, tolerant civilisation. The stir in the world arising from the French Revolution, added to the Industrial Revolution unleashed by the steam-engine and many key-inventions, led inexorably to the democratic age. The franchise was extended steadily in all the Western States of Europe, as it had been in America, until it became practically universal. The aristocracy, who had guided for centuries the advance of Britain, was merged in the rising mass of the nation. In the United States the Party system and the Money Power, which knew no class distinctions, preserved the structure of society during the economic development of the American continent.
At the same time the new British Empire or Commonwealth of Nations was based upon Government by consent, and the voluntary association of autonomous states under the Crown. At the death of Queen Victoria it might well have been believed that the problems of past centuries were far on the highroad to gradual solution. But meanwhile in Europe the mighty strength of the Teutonic race, hitherto baffled by division or cramped in lingering medieval systems, began to assert itself with volcanic energy. In the struggle that ensued Great Britain and the United States were to fight for the first time side by side in a common cause.” – Preface; The Great Democracies
(Henty correlations coming soon…)
Book 10: Recovery and Reform
- I. The Victory Peace
- II. Canning and the Duke
- III. Reform and Free Trade
- IV. The Crimean War
- V. Palmerston
- VI. The Migration of the Peoples.
- 1. Canada and South Africa
- VII. The Migration of the Peoples.
- 2. Australia and New Zealand
Book 11: The Great Republic
- VIII. American Epic
- IX. Slavery and Secession
- X. The Union in Danger
- XI. The Campaign Against Richmond
- XII. Lee and McClellan
- XIII. Chancellorsville and Gettysburg
- XIV. The Victory of the Union
Book 12: The Victorian Age
- XV. The Rise of Germany
- XVI. Gladstone and Disraeli
- XVII. American “Reconstruction”
- XVIII. America as a World Power
- XIX. Home Rule for Ireland
- XX. Lord Salisbury’s Governments
- XXI. The South African War
“Here is set a long story of the English-speaking peoples. They are now to become Allies in terrible but victorious wars. And that is not the end. Another phase looms before us, in which alliance will once more be tested and in which the formidable virtues may be to preserve Peace and Freedom. The future is unknowable, but the past should give us hope. Nor should we now seek to define precisely the exact terms of ultimate union.” – Winston Churchill
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Wow! How cool is this! I have my son’s first three years mapped out for history lessons, but have a hole for his senior year. What a neat lesson plan idea! Incorporate some extensive writing projects and this would be an awesome way to end his home education! Very exciting! Thanks!
I love your approach to teaching history! My boys have really enjoyed the Beric the Briton study guide! Can’t wait to try your other ones. Thank you!
I’m interested in these complete study guides. I would like to use them for my son in the fall. While you emphasized their being free, I would be quite willing to pay for the material.