I was not aware of that. I know A History of Philosophy by Copleston has an imprimatur which I thought was a college level text but I could be wrong. That’s not a history of America/world but is a history text. All three levels would be useful for myself and my son. He’s still a newborn but I want to be ready with resources. Keep em’ coming! Thanks so much so far.
Copleston's books are what they appear to be: a collection of summary treatments of the principal thinkers and schools of thought in the West from the pre-Socratics through the linguistic and existentialist philosophers of the first half of the twentieth century. They contain no social, political, regional, or national history—i.e., "history" as the term is usually understood. The books are imprimatur'd because they were written specifically for use in Jesuit and other Catholic colleges, and the imprimatur indeed became an important sales tool in the late fifties and early sixties, when the majority of Catholic colleges still placed high value on Catholic orthodoxy in the teaching of theology and philosophy—at least their administrations said they did.
During the sixties, at my own Catholic college here in New York, some of the philosophy teachers used Copleston and some didn't. Even students in classes where Copleston wasn't used knew of the books, however, and sometimes bought them, mostly to prepare for exams. The books' primary virtue was thoroughness, their primary weakness, crushing dullness.
Curiously, it was Copleston's thoroughness more than anything else that made the books popular at some non-Catholic colleges and among students. For instance, if you carefully read his treatment of Plato's
Phaedo or of Plotinus rather than the texts themselves, you could probably eke out a C on a midterm or final exam.
As for regular history of the so-called early modern period—roughly Renaissance through Napoleon—any standard college textbook published before 1962 or so would provide a workable picture of how the world and America were understood before (((social justice warrior propagandists))) took over. As for post-Napoleonic history, so-called modern history, I remember thinking well of Gordon Craig's college textbook. Copies of it might still be readily available for a decent price. Try the Bookfinder.com site.
Topic: Any recommended textbooks on American and World history? (Read 626 times)