Joy Hakim wrote a successful American history book titled A History of Us, which was pUblished by Oxford University Press, not the big textbook corporations, because it was written as factual stories, not by a checklist. She also wrote The Story of Science, which was published by the Smithsonian, for the same reason.
When you read her books and compare them to the lifeless textbooks that students are required to read, you will understand the power of story. History and science are intrinsically fascinating. The textbooks make them dull.
Joy has started writing online lessons, also in story form, about history and science. Students will think of them as good stories, that happen to be factual.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
What a joy!!!
The storytelling approach to history is, of course, in ill repute among academics because when we tell a story, we impose a narrative frame on events, assigning plot structures and heroes and villains. See Hayden White’s seminal essay, “The Historical Text as Literary Artifact.” However, it’s my belief that while we should be AWARE of our tendency to falsify by such imposition of narrative structures and elements and motifs, the fact is that, given how WE are constructed, we cannot, in any event, avoid imposing story forms on events. We are storytelling creatures. It’s how we are built to make sense of events. This is why Lord Coleman, appointed by Gates to be the decider for the rest of us, was so far, far off base when he denigrated storytelling.
That said, I very, very highly recommend the great series of storytelling works produced by Will and Ariel Durant, such as their Story of Western Civilization–a multi-volume history that they worked on over a lifetime. I particularly recommend the Durant volumes entitled Our Oriental Heritage and Caesar and Christ. Gripping stuff!!! Another great storytelling historian is Norman Cohn. See his fascinating book The Pursuit of the Millennium, which is about cult craziness around the turn of the first millennium CE and the borrowing by Nazis, in the 20th century, of motifs and symbols from these millennial movements. Yet another great storyteller: Ronald Wright, Stolen Continents: The Americas through Indian Eyes Since 1492.
Also of great value, I think, for restoring people’s interest in history are books about everyday lives in historical periods. Of these, here are a couple that I particularly recommend: Ian Mortimer’s The Time Traveler’s Guide to the Middle Ages and Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger’s The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium, an Englishman’s World.
Thanks for the tip about Ms. Hakim’s work, Diane! The lessons posted so far are superb, and I look forward to dipping into her books.
These stories serve to personalize history. I watch ‘Finding Your Roots’ on PBS. The family stories are compelling as are the historical events that help explain why someone immigrated to this country.
BTW, the writing prompt for lesson #1 is apropos. “Write about a pandemic.”
I love A History of Us and use it often with my middle school class. I have tried over the years to get my department to choose it as our “textbook”, but they always wanted a more traditional textbook…I ignore the textbook and stick with Hakim’s wonderful series. Looking forward to seeing what she is working on now.
Yes! History and science (and may I include literature) are intrinsically fascinating. Reading stories is a joy, not a task. Reading is a joy, not a learning standard. Thank you.
I used The History of US for many years in my 5th grade classroom. My students use to love it when I read Hakim to them . Miss that excitement since I retired.
True, Hakim’s books are entertaining, but they also contain serious factual errors and problematic messages, such as, “The people in the United States who were racists and bigots didn’t usually mean to hurt others.” The author also writes that children of plantation owners were taught to be “leaders.” She minimizes the dangers enslaved people faced in favor of highlighting how it provided some protections, “(Slaveholders) might beat them, but they tried not to do them serious harm. They needed to keep their property healthy.” “Most of those lynched were white. There was almost no lynching of slaves – they were worth money.”
The author even presents arguments made by racist, proslavery activists, “Visitors from Europe will say (enslaved people on plantations) live better than most peasants in the Old World.” (That theory was debunked by the formerly-enslaved Harriet Jacobs after her visit to Europe in her book, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, 1861.) Hakim does not credit this argument as being made by Amelia Matilda Murray, which would likely would lead to justifiable public backlash.
Not only does the author omit mention of how slavery was protected in the Constitution, she also incorrectly states that the Constitution ended the slave trade.