I got most of the way through gulag archipeligo through audiobook on my phone. could listen to it every day on the way to work and often at work since at the time my job was almost entirely physical. I have the pdf and have highly recommended it to many people but like most things conspiracists recommend it goes ignored. Honestly i would recommend reading at minimum the first chapter or two on the arrests, it is the closest to where we are immediately, it shows how the world went from 'everything is fine' to 'me? what for? surely someone will set this right!' and the rest of the book explains in great detail what happens when it is *not* set right. The books that i could find with that specific name looked to be something else. I looked for gibbon and found '*The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire*' which i am going to assume is what you meant? splitting hairs here lol, ill take a look into that suggestion. Ill have a look at the textbooks, my wife was planning on homeschooling anyway and id agree that modern education has declined.