Whatever happened to the McCarthurs and the Pattons

[Troubleshooter]

Originally Posted by dar512

But the stuff I'm finding the most fun is their social studies. The youngest just finished working through the Tigris/Euphrates "cradle of civilization" stuff. The more I read about early history, the more convinced I am that the whole of history from hunter/gather to yesterday's newspaper is one big long power struggle.

I'm reading Joseph Campbell's Transformations of Myth Through Time It covers history, religion and art in one illustrated, readable book. It might help you tie it all together.

Originally Posted by dar512

It's comic in a way. Once we discovered/developed farming we had more time. And so we had time to develop the arts -- and tools of war.

Science is a leisure activity. Romans, chinese, greeks, egyptians, etc all developed a leisure class who didn't have to work for their food and could devote time to broadening perspectives. You have to conquer to make time for thinking, so to speak.