You may be familiar with the typical textbook approach to history: break a time period down into general trends. This approach can be interesting for history majors, but not for your beginning student.

But history doesn't have to be boring. History should be interesting, because it is about real people -- just like you and I -- their dreams, their decisions, and the outcome of their way of life. This is the exciting part that textbooks gloss over, but biographies present richly.

Textbooks will inform you that Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, but biographies explain what inspired him to such creative achievement. Biographies illuminate the great love he had for his deaf mother -- and may even describe the experiments he performed on the family dog.

Textbooks will inform you that Isaac Newton developed the theory of gravity, but biographies describe his fascination with mathematics that enabled him to grasp complicated gravitational formulas. Biographies let you see the child Isaac who constantly concentrated on mathematics -- and as a result was absent-minded in his work on the farm.

Lessons From History is a tool to organize your study of history through biographies. Lessons From History organizes a time period around a person or event, and provides a biography list. By reading these books (many are available from the library), you will be able to observe the person's character and see their results of their actions -- good or bad.