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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Abe Lincoln Goes to Washington
by Cheryl Harness
from National Geographic
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Abe Lincoln Grows Up
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Abraham Lincoln
Heroes of History
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Abraham Lincoln
by Clara Ingram Judson
from Sterling Publishing Co.
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1951 Newbery Honor Book
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Abraham Lincoln
by Edgar & Ingri D'Aulaire
75th Anniversary Edition from Beautiful Feet Books
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Abraham Lincoln's World
by Genevieve Foster, expanded by Joanna Foster
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1945 Newbery Honor Book
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Abraham Lincoln: The Man & His Faith
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Admiral Richard Byrd
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Adventures of Theodore Roosevelt
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Against the World
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Agatha Christie: An Autobiography
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Al Capone Does My Shirts
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Alexander Graham Bell
by Elizabeth MacLeod
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Alexander Hamilton
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Alexander the Great
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Alexander the Great
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Alexander the Great: His Armies and Campaigns 334-323 BC
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Alfred the Great
by Asser
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All That Glitters
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Along Came Galileo
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America's Paul Revere
by Esther Forbes
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Americanization of Benjamin Franklin
by Gordon S. Wood
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And the Word Came With Power
by Joanne Shetler, Patricia Purvis
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Anne Bradstreet
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Anne Bradstreet
Christian Renegades Series
by Doug Wilson
3rd edition from Canon Press
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Anne Bradstreet
by Faith Cook
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Anne Frank's Story
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Anne Frank: Beyond the Diary
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Archimedes and the Door of Science
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Archimedes and the Door of Science
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Arctic Explorer
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Around the World in a Hundred Years
by Jean Fritz
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Artist of the Reformation
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Augustine
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Augustine Came to Kent
Bethlehem Books Living History Library
by Barbara Willard
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Autobiography of George Muller
by George Muller
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$18.99
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by Diane Stanley & Peter Vennema
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Ben Franklin
Sterling Point Books
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Benazir Bhutto
by Englar, Mary
1st edition from Compass Point Books
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Benjamin Franklin
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Heroes of History
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Benjamin Franklin, American Genius
by Brandon Marie Miller
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Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin
by Marguerite Henry & Wesley Dennis
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Betrayal
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Betty Before X
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Beyond the Myth
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Beyond the Sacred Page
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Bible Smuggler
by Louise Vernon
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Biography of Benjamin Franklin
Sons of Liberty Series
by William M. Thayer
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Biography of George Washington
Sons of Liberty Series
by William M. Thayer
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Biography of James A. Garfield
Sons of Liberty Series
by William Thayer
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$9.50 (1 in stock)
Black Heroes of the American Revolution
by Burke Davis
1992 Odyssey Classics edition from Clarion Books
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Bonhoeffer
by Eric Metaxas, foreword by Timothy J. Keller
Revised and Updated from Thomas Nelson Publishers
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$24.99
Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life
Theologians on the Christian Life
by Stephen J. Nichols
from Crossway Books
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Book About Christopher Columbus
by Ruth Belov Gross, Illustrated by Syd Hoff
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Born to Run
by Christopher McDougall
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Boy on the Wooden Box
by Leon Leyson
Reprint from Atheneum
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Boy's War
by David Michell
1st edition from OMF
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Boys in the Boat
by Daniel James Brown
Reprint from Penguin Putnam
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by Daniel James Brown, adapted by Gregory Mone
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Brendan the Navigator
by Jean Fritz
from Penguin Putnam
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Brendan Voyage
Modern Library Exploration
by Tim Severin
from Modern Library
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Bridge to the Sun
by Gwen Terasaki
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Bruchko
by Bruce Olson
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Bruchko
by Bruce Olson
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Bruchko and the Motilone Miracle
by Bruce Olson
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Bud, Not Buddy
by Christopher Paul Curtis
from Yearling
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2000 Newbery Medal winner
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Buffalo Bill
by Edgar & Ingri D'Aulaire
from Beautiful Feet Books
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Buffalo Bill
by Helen Cody Wetmore
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Buffalo Bill and the Wild West
by Henry Blackman Sell and Victor Weybright
Reprint from International Cody Family Assoc.
for Adult
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$15.00 (1 in stock)
Bulletproof George Washington
by David Barton
2nd edition from WallBuilder Press
Biography for 9th-adult
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Bulletproof George Washington
by David Barton
3rd edition from WallBuilder Press
Biography for 9th-adult
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Candy Bomber
by Michael O. Tunnell
from Charlesbridge
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$9.95
Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
by Jean Lee Latham
from Houghton Mifflin
Biography for 5th-9th grade
1956 Newbery Medal winner
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$9.99
Chance to Die
by Elisabeth Elliot
from Revell Publishing
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$22.99
Chasing Space for Young Readers
by Leland Melvin
from Amistad Press
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$7.99
Children of the Storm
by Natasha Vins
from Bob Jones University Press
Autobiography for 8th-10th grade
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$8.99
Christianity and the Constitution
by John Eidsmoe
from Baker Academics
for Adult
in Christianity and the State (Location: XWV-STA)
$25.00 $15.00 (1 in stock)
Christopher Columbus
by John Abbott
from A Beka Books
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Christopher Columbus
Sowers Series
by Bennie Rhodes
from Mott Media
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Churchill
by Paul Johnson
Reprint from Penguin Putnam
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$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)
Clara Barton
Heroes of History
by Geoff & Janet Benge
from Emerald Books
Biography for 4th-7th grade
in Heroes of History (Location: BIO-BENGE)
$11.99
Cleopatra
by Diane Stanley & Peter Vennema
from William Morrow & Company
Biography for 3rd-6th grade
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Cleopatra
by Robert Green
from Grolier Publishing
Biography for 4th-6th grade
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Co. Aytch
by Sam Watkins
from Touchstone
Historical Non-fiction for 8th-Adult
in American Civil War (1860-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
$17.00
Columbus
by Edgar & Ingri D'Aulaire
from Beautiful Feet Books
Biography for 3rd-6th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$17.95
Columbus and Cortez, Conquerors for Christ
by John Eidsmoe
from New Leaf Press
Biography for Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
Come On, Seabiscuit!
by Ralph Moody
from University of Nebraska
Biography for 5th-9th grade
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Coolidge
by Amity Shlaes
from Harper Perennial
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
Coronation of Glory
Reformation Trail Series #12
by Deborah Meroff
from Inheritance Publications
Biography for 8th-10th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$17.95
Country Artist
by David R. Collins
from First Avenue Editions
Biography for Preschool-3rd Grade
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