Thanks for your thoughts.

For sure, being good at history is not about remembering dates and names; however, in my experience I’ve found that having a basic grasp of the facts is essential—both for understanding how history played out, and placing events in their proper context.

My point in focusing on the facts here was just to say: when facts are wrapped in a good story and given context, they are much easier to remember.

I’m also aware that phonetic alphabets slowly developed over time. I’m sure Golmbrich’s point was not to deny that, but rather to explain the point to children (it’s a kid’s story).

I’ll give it that chapter a look, though—it does sound like he’s overstated the point here, and I believe he may have introduced the history of other alphabets in the chapter.

Cheers,
Tiffani

“was a wholly new invention in the ancient world”

And this is just wrong — phonetic alphabets developed slowly from precursors: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphabet#History