20th Century America

The 20th was America's century. The United States in particular was able to play the role of industrial leader, international hero, aloof arbiter, Good Samaritan, and cultural giant. Of course, there were plenty of detractors, and snobs who didn't like the thought of an upstart nation of plebs gaining so much influence and power so quickly, but for the most part America and Americans were heralded as everyone's friend.

It was also the century of postmodernism, Darwinian indoctrination, modern "art", legalized abortion, rampant sexual license, etc., most of these finding their origin or substantial support in the U.S.A. American troops may have stopped the spread of Communism in South Korea and taken out the Third Reich, but they weren't able to stop the spread of anti-Christian sentiment or the deaths of more Christian martyrs than in all the previous centuries combined.

The British historian Paul Johnson says the Modern Era was born on March 29, 1919, when photographs of a solar eclipse proved Albert Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity. It's always a dangerous business inaugurating or ending historical periods with specific dates, but this much is clear—with the universal acceptance of Einstein's theory which followed, the moral and philosophical relativism with which the West had been experimenting for 300 years or so was finally codified as the standard approach to life, the universe and everything.

Einstein first published his theory in 1905. Shortly thereafter, the world began to fall apart. World War I was more than just a war—it was the conflict of outmoded nationalistic ideals with the new super-efficient war machines produced by the Industrial Revolution and technological progress. The Great Depression affected nations all over the world, the Lost Generation abandoned morality and surrendered to existential angst, and World War II stripped away the last illusions of innocence.

After that, there was no going back. Everything was questioned, everything was assumed to be in flux, there were no absolutes, no stationary standards, just the present and confusion and ambiguity. Existentialism told people to create their own meaning through self-actualization; postmodernism said there was no meaning, or that all meaning was relative and ultimately meaningless, merely a social construct designed to control people.

This is where human-centered thinking will ultimately get you, of course.When God is dismissed, hope is impossible, and the only response is either complete despair (existentialism) or complete nonsense (postmodernism). Add in the godless sexual preoccupations of Freudian theory, the culmination of Darwinian evolutionary naturalism, and the Enlightenment-inspired trust in human goodness and progress, and you've got a chaotic world.

Which is what we have now. After the Sexual Revolution, the secularization of public dialogue, and the watering-down of the Christian Gospel in so many churches, we're left with moral, religious and philosophical wreckage of the worst kind. Fortunately, we also have the true Gospel, which tells us that Christ has always and will always be the answer to evil and the only path to Truth and Salvation.

Despite the high death toll among Christians in the 20th century, the last 100 years also saw the most concerted missionary efforts yet undertaken, spanning every continent and nearly every people group. The Bible was translated into hundreds of languages (there are still thousands to go), the poor were cared for, and the Good News of the resurrected Lord was taken everywhere men and women could go.

Even the darkest centuries (and the 20th was certainly among them) aren't sufficient to overcome the work of Yahweh Almighty among His people and in the created world. Man has always rebelled; he will continue to do so. But God's faithful children will continue to spread His message and love and witness through the power of the Holy Spirit until Christ comes again and history is fulfilled in all the glory and majesty of the triumphant Godhead.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he is a husband and father, teaches adult Sunday school in his Presbyterian congregation, and likes weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur.Read more of his reviews here.

Did you find this review helpful?
82 Items found Print
Active Filters: Biographies, Adult
Amazing Mr. Doolittle
by Quentin Reynolds
from Appleton-Century-Crofts
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
America 1933
by Michael Golay
from Free Press
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
America the Beautiful/ A Man of Destiny
by the editors of Country Beautiful Magazine
from Country Beautiful
for Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
American Caesar
by William Manchester
from Little, Brown & Company
for 10th grade-adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
Band of Brothers
by Stephen Ambrose, Foreword by Tom Hanks
25th anniversary from Simon and Schuster
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$18.99
Bombs and Blessings
by Retha Hazel Eldridge
from Review and Herald Publishing Association
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
Bonhoeffer
by Eric Metaxas, foreword by Timothy J. Keller
Revised and Updated from Thomas Nelson Publishers
for 11th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$24.99
Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life
Theologians on the Christian Life
by Stephen J. Nichols
from Crossway Books
for Adult
in Practical Christian Living (Location: XCL-PRAC)
Boys in the Boat
by Daniel James Brown
Reprint from Penguin Putnam
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Boys in the Boat
by Daniel James Brown
from Viking Press
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Bridge to the Sun
by Gwen Terasaki
from Rock Creek Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$15.99 $8.00 (1 in stock)
Captured!
by Carolyn Paine Miller
1st edition from Christian Herald Books
for Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Cheer the Lonesome Traveller
by Leslie Alexander Lacy, illustrated by James Barkley
from Dial Press
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Churchill
by Paul Johnson
Reprint from Penguin Putnam
for 9th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$17.00
Churchill: Walking with Destiny
by Andrew Roberts
from Penguin Books
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Comes the Comrade!
by Alexandra Orme, translated from the Polish by M.A. Michael and L. Meyer
from William Morrow & Company
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Complete Maus
by Art Spiegelman
from Pantheon Books
for 10th-Adult
in Comic Books & Graphic Novels (Location: FIC-COMIC)
Complete Maus
by Art Spiegelman
from Pantheon Books
for 10th-Adult
in Comic Books & Graphic Novels (Location: FIC-COMIC)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Coolidge
by Amity Shlaes
from Harper Perennial
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
Count Luckner, the Sea Devil
by Lowell Thomas
from Garden City Books
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
Death Valley Scotty
from Trans-Anglo Press
for Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$16.00 (1 in stock)
Defeating the Totalitarian Lie
by Hilmar Von Campe
from HighWay
for 8th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Diary of a Young Girl
by Anne Frank
from International Collectors Library
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Diary of a Young Girl
by Anne Frank
from Anchor Books
for 7th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$6.50 (1 in stock)
Diary of a Young Girl
by Anne Frank
from Bantam Books
Biography for 7th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$7.99
Easy Company Soldier
by Sgt. Don Malarkey
from St. Martin's Press
for 11th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$17.50
Evidence Not Seen
by Darlene Deibler Rose
from HarperCollins
Biography for 9th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$16.99
Fabulous Opal Whiteley
by Elbert Bede
from Binford & Mort Publishing
for 8th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
Faithful Spy
by John Hendrix
from Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
for 8th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$18.99
Falcons of France
by Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall
from Little, Brown & Company
for 7th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Fallen Angels
by Walter Dean Myers
from Scholastic Inc.
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$10.99
FDR
by Jean Edward Smith
from Random House
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Fighting the Flying Circus
by Captain Eddie V. Rickenbacker
1965 Edition from Doubleday & Company
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Flyboys
by James Bradley
2nd edition from Back Bay Books
for 10th grade-adult
in World War II (1939-1945) (Location: HISA-20WW2)
George Washington Carver: The Man Who Overcame
by Lawrence Elliott
from Prentice Hall
for Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
God's Samurai
by Gordon Prange, with Donald Goldstein & Katherine Dillon
from Potomoc Books
for 10th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$21.95
Great Waters
by Creston Donald Ketchum
from Hutchinson & Co.
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
Here Is Your War
by Ernie Pyle; illustrated by Carol Johnson
1943 Printing from World Publishing Company
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War
by Joseph Loconte
from Tyndale House
for Adult
in The Inklings (Location: LIR-INK)
$18.99
In the Arena: A Memoir of Victory, Defeat and Renewal
by Richard Nixon
1st edition from Simon & Schuster Macmillan
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Kinderlager
by Milton J. Nieuwsma
from Scholastic Inc.
for 6th-Adult
in Holocaust (Location: HISW-20WW2H)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Land of the Morning
by Jean McAnlis McMurdie
from American Home-School Publishing
Biography for 10th-Adult
in WWII: Pacific Theater (Location: HISA-20WW2P)
Last Lion Volumes 1 & 2
by William Manchester
1st edition from Little, Brown & Company
for Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$18.00 (1 in stock)
Lonely but Not Alone
by HRH Wilhelmina, Princess of the Netherlands
from McGraw-Hill
for 10th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$16.00 (1 in stock)
Lost Executioner
by Nic Dunlop
1st edition from Walker and Company
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Maria
by Maria von Trapp
from Creation House
for 7th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Maus I: My Father Bleeds History
by Art Spiegelman
from Pantheon Books
for 10th-Adult
in Comic Books & Graphic Novels (Location: FIC-COMIC)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Mein Kampf
by Adolf Hitler, translated by Ralph Manheim
from Houghton Mifflin
Autobiography for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Mein Kampf
by Adolf Hitler, translated by Michael Ford
from Elite Minds, Inc.
Autobiography for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$29.95
Memoirs of the Second World War
by Winston S. Churchill, abridged by Denis Kelly
from HarperCollins
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$25.99
Never Give In
Leaders in Action Series
by Stephen Mansfield
from Cumberland House
Biography for 9th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$19.99
Never Give In
Leaders in Action Series
by Stephen Mansfield
Second Edition from Highland Books
Biography for 9th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
New York to Nome
by Rick Steber, Photography by Sheldon Taylor
2007 Revised from Bonanza Publishing
for 8th-Adult
in 20th Century Exploration (Location: HISW-20EXP)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Night
by Elie Wiesel
Revised from Hill & Wang
Autobiographies & Memoirs for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$12.00 $4.00 (11 in stock)
Omar Bradley: General at War
by Jim DeFelice
from Regnery Publishing, Inc.
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Paris 1919
by Margaret Macmillan
from Random House
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Righteous Cause
by Robert W. Cherny
from University of Oklahoma Press
for Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Roots
Book Club Edition from Doubleday & Company
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Sailor's Story
by Sam Glanzman, Foreward by Max Brooks, Introduction by Larry Hama, Afterword by Chuck Dixon
from Dover Publications
for 10th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$11.00 (1 in stock)
Second World War: Hinge of Fate
Second World War Volume 4
by Winston S. Churchill
from Houghton Mifflin
for 10th grade-adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Sergeant York and the Great War
by Alvin C. York
from My Father's World
Autobiography for 7th-Adult
in World War I (1914-1919) (Location: HISA-20WW1)
$22.00
Shadow of His Wings
by Gereon Karl Goldmann
Revised from Ignatius Press
for 11th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$18.95
So Long Until Tomorrow
by Lowell Thomas
from William Morrow & Company
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Spirit of St. Louis
by Charles A. Lindbergh
from Charles Scribner's Sons
Biography for 8th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Supreme Commander
by Seymour Morris Jr.
from HarperCollins
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Survival in Auschwitz
by Primo Levi
1st edition from Touchstone
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$14.00 $5.50 (2 in stock)
Things They Carried
by Tim O'Brien
from Mariner Books
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$15.95
Three Year Picnic
by Evelyn Whitfield
from Premier Publishing
Biography for 9th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$14.00
To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee
from Harper Perennial
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$16.99
To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee
35 Anv from HarperTrophy
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
1961 Pulitzer Prize winner
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$26.99
To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee, illustrated by David Johnson
from Reader's Digest
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
Pulitzer Prize Winner
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Tolkien and the Great War
by John Garth
from William Morrow & Company
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
Truman
by David McCullough
from Simon and Schuster
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Twelve Seconds to the Moon
by Rosamond Young & Catharine Fitzgerald
2nd edition from Air Force Museum Foundation, Inc.
for 7th-Adult
in Aviation History (Location: HISV-AVIA)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Unbroken
by Laura Hillenbrand
Reprint from Random House
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$16.00 $5.00 (2 in stock)
Unbroken
by Laura Hillenbrand
from Random House
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$28.00 $14.00 (1 in stock)
Unbroken (Adapted for Young Adults)
by Laura Hillenbrand
from Random House
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Voices from the Korean War
by Richard Peters and Xiaobing Li
from University Press of Kentucky
for 11th-Adult
in Korean War (1950-1953) (Location: HISA-20KW)
Winning the War with Ships
by Admiral Emory S. Land, introduction by Gen. Charles A. Lindbergh
1st edition from Robert M. McBride & Co.
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$48.00 (1 in stock)
Winston's War
by Max Hastings
from Vintage Books
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
With the Old Breed
by E.B. Sledge
from Ballantine Books
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Zookeeper's Wife
by Diane Ackerman
from W. W. Norton and Co.
for 9th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$5.00 (1 in stock)