Chronological History

Sometimes we speak of world history as though it belongs to people. It doesn't—it belongs to God, and though people play prominently within the historical narrative, it always remains under God's auspices and control. The problem with losing the right perspective isn't that we'll get the facts wrong, it's that we'll fail to understand what they mean, what the purpose of past events is, and what we can look forward to.

Human history began all at once in the same place: the Garden of Eden, where God made Adam and Eve as the crown of all Creation. He told them to fill the earth and take dominion of it, and He also told them not to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. They ate the fruit anyway, and mankind was removed from paradise and introduced to tension, pain, and resistance.

The story of the world is in many ways simply the story of adversity. For the enemies of God, it's adversity in the form of the failure and futility of purely human endeavor; for God's people, it's the story of fighting for the truth against secular philosophies, fighting for holiness despite the pervasiveness of sin, and fighting for the Gospel in the face of persecution and death.

Jesus Christ is our only hope. He is the Prince of Peace, the defeater of Death, and the King of the Universe, the saver of souls and the punisher of wickedness. His kingdom is the restoration and glorious fulfillment of the paradise from which Adam and Eve were removed, and we work, wait, hope and pray for the quick fulfillment of His will in all things.

This is our framework for history. While it's important to study things like the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, and the ancient Near East, it's only important when investigated through the lens of God's ultimate sovereignty and plan. The story of mankind is the story of redemption, and only when we analyze battles, kings, treaties, and catastrophes from God's perspective can we truly make sense of them.

Otherwise, it's all fairly irrelevant and useless. Sure, there's Napoleon's dictum that those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it, but a quick survey of the past will show that each successive generation does repeat the sins of their fathers, and that without Christ's real physical life on Earth as a centering point, there's no real cause for optimism or hope of any kind.

Christ's love not only makes the trajectory of history cause for hope; it reveals the truly great moments of the past, events that to the secular eye seem insignificant or even pernicious. We're speaking of the progress of the true Church, of course, and of each soul that God calls and makes His own through the agency of His Holy Spirit. These are the milestones we look for and celebrate.

We carry a lot of world history products. Because it's the story of God's work in the world and our human responses, we believe it's important to know and understand. Not everything we carry is Christian; there are plenty of secular resources here. We encourage you to use whichever ones work best for your situation, but that you do so with a view to understanding the will and work of the One who made history in the first place.

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.

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Abraham Lincoln's World
by Genevieve Foster, expanded by Joanna Foster
from Beautiful Feet Books
Historical Non-fiction for 7th-10th grade
1945 Newbery Honor Book
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Adventures of Theodore Roosevelt
by Theodore Roosevelt
from National Geographic
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Al Capone Does My Shirts
by Gennifer Choldenko
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2005 Newbery Honor Book
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Alfred the Great
by Asser
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Anne Bradstreet
Christian Renegades Series
by Doug Wilson
3rd edition from Canon Press
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Artist of the Reformation
by Joyce McPherson
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Betty Before X
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Beyond the Myth
by Polly Schoyer Brooks
from Sandpiper Books
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Boys in the Boat adapted for Young Readers
by Daniel James Brown, adapted by Gregory Mone
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Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
by Jean Lee Latham
from Houghton Mifflin
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1956 Newbery Medal winner
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Chance to Die
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Children of the Storm
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Churchill
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Co. Aytch
by Sam Watkins
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Come On, Seabiscuit!
by Ralph Moody
from University of Nebraska
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David Livingstone
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Elizabeth I
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Endurance
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Evidence Not Seen
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Faithful Spy
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For God and His People
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from Bob Jones University Press
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$13.00
Four Voyages
by Christopher Columbus
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George Whitefield
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God and Ronald Reagan
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God's Smuggler
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Going Solo
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Governor of England
by Marjorie Bowen
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Great Adventurers of the Twentieth Century
by Ron Tagliapietra
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Here I Stand
by Roland H. Bainton
from Meridian Book
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Hiding Place
by Corrie Ten Boom
35th Anniversary Edition from Chosen Books
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$15.99
History of US Book 7
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by Joy Hakim
3rd Revised Edition from Oxford University
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Hitler
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Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
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Jason Lee
Sowers Series
by Charles Ludwig
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Jessie Benton Fremont
by Marguerite Higgins
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Joan of Arc
by Mark Twain
from Ignatius Press
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John Bunyan
by William Deal
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John Calvin, Genius of Geneva
Reformation Trail Series #07
by Lawrence Penning
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John Knox: Stalwart Courage
by Douglas Wilson, foreword by George Grant
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Jonathan Edwards
by Stephen J. Nichols
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Journey and Ordeal of Cabeza de Vaca
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Kitty, My Rib
by E. Jane Mall
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Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Biography
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Life of General Stonewall Jackson
by Mary Williamson
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Life of George Washington
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Life of J.E.B. Stuart
by Mary Williamson
2nd edition from Christian Liberty Press
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Life of Sir Thomas More
by William Roper
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Lincoln: A Photobiography
by Russell Freedman
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1988 Newbery Medal winner
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Luther by Those Who Knew Him
Reformation Trail Series #20
by Elizabeth R. Charles
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$19.95
Martin Luther
by J. A. Morrison
2nd edition from Christian Liberty Press
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$10.50
Martin Luther
by J. A. Morrison
3rd edition from Christian Liberty Press
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$11.75
Martin Luther: The Man and His Work
Reformation Trail Series #19
by Arthur C. McGiffert
from Inheritance Publications
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Mein Kampf
by Adolf Hitler, translated by Michael Ford
from Elite Minds, Inc.
Autobiography for 9th-Adult
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$29.95
Mornings on Horseback
by David McCullough
1st edition from Simon & Schuster Macmillan
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National; Book Award
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$20.00
Mountain Men and Fur Traders of the Far West
by LeRoy R. Hafen & Harvey L. Carter
from University of Nebraska
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Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee
by David Crockett
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Never Give In
Leaders in Action Series
by Stephen Mansfield
from Cumberland House
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Not a Tame Lion
Leaders in Action Series
by Terry Glaspey
from Cumberland House
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$7.96
Ocean-Born Mary
by Lois Lenski
1st Edition Thus from Purple House Press
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Pierre Viret
by Jean-Marc Berthoud
1st edition
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Plutarch's Lives Volume I
by Plutarch, translated by John Dryden
from Modern Library
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$19.00
Poor Richard
by James Daugherty
from Beautiful Feet Books
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Prince and Heretic
Prince of Orange Nassau Volume 1
by Marjorie Bowen
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Princess Ka'iulani
by Sharon Linnea
from Eerdmans
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Queen Eleanor
by Polly Schoyer Brooks
from Houghton Mifflin
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Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail
by Theodore Roosevelt
from University of Nebraska
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Reconstruction: Binding the Wounds
Perspectives on History Series
by Cheryl Edwards, ed.
from History Compass
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River of Grace
by Joyce McPherson
2nd edition from Greenleaf Press
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Robert E. Lee the Christian
by William J. Johnstone
2nd edition from Christian Liberty Press
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Roman Lives
by Plutarch, translated by Robin Waterfield
Reissue from Oxford University
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Ronald Reagan Our 40th President
by Winston Groom
from Regnery Publishing, Inc.
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Rough Riders
by Theodore Roosevelt
from Dover Publications
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$8.95
Sergeant York and the Great War
by Alvin C. York
from My Father's World
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$22.00
Soldier of Virginia
by Marjorie Bowen
from Inheritance Publications
Biography for 9th-12th grade
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$12.95
Stalin
by Albert Marrin
from Beautiful Feet Books
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$13.95
Stonewall Jackson
Sowers Series
by Charles Ludwig
from Mott Media
Biography for 7th-9th grade
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$8.99
Story of the Trapp Family Singers
by Maria Augusta Trapp
from HarperCollins
Biography for 7th-10th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$16.99
The Thunder
by Douglas Bond
from P&R Publishing
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$14.99
This Was John Calvin
by Thea Van Halsema
from IDEA Ministries
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This Was John Calvin
by Thea Van Halsema
from Inheritance Publications
Biography for 7th-10th grade
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$11.95
Three Men Came to Heidelberg
by Thea Van Halsema
from IDEA Ministries
Biography for 7th-9th grade
in Church History (Location: XCH-HIS)
$7.95
Through Gates of Splendor
by Elisabeth Elliot
from Tyndale House
Biography for 8th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$16.99
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
Trial and Triumph
by Richard Hannula
from Canon Press
Biography for 5th-9th grade
in Church History for Kids (Location: XCH-KID)
$21.99 $14.00 (1 in stock)
Triumph of Truth
by J. H. Merle D'Aubigne
from Bob Jones University Press
Biography for 9th-Adult
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$9.99
Twelve Years a Slave
by Solomon Northup
from Dover Publications
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$9.95
Upon the Head of the Goat
by Aranka Siegal
First Square Fish: Aug.2012 from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
for 5th-9th grade
1982 Newbery Honor Book
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$9.99
Virginia's General
by Albert Marrin
from Beautiful Feet Books
Biography for 7th-10th grade
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White Horse King
by Benjamin R. Merkle
from Thomas Nelson Publishers
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$14.99
William Bradford
by Gary D. Schmidt
from Eerdmans
Biography for 7th-10th grade
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$12.00 $7.50 (1 in stock)
William, by the Grace of God
Prince of Orange Nassau Volume 2
by Marjorie Bowen
from Inheritance Publications
for 9th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$17.95
World of Columbus and Sons
by Genevieve Foster, edited by Rea Berg
Edited from Beautiful Feet Books
History Reference for 7th-10th grade
Cathy Duffy's 100 Top Picks
in Age of Exploration (1450-1700) (Location: HISA-16EXP)
$21.95