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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1066: The Year of the Conquest
by David Howarth
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1776
by David McCullough
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Abraham Lincoln's World
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Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies
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Aeneid
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Aeschylus II: The Oresteia
The Complete Greek Tragedies
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Penguin Classics
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America: From Gridlock to Deadlock
A Basic History of the United States Volume 6
by Clarence B. Carson
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Ancient Rome
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And There Was Light
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Anna and the King of Siam
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Penguin Classics
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Anselm of Canterbury: The Major Works
Oxford World's Classics
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Arthur Erskine's Story
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Ascent to Love
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$16.00
Augustus Caesar's World
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Band of Brothers
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25th anniversary from Simon and Schuster
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A Basic History of the United States Volume 2
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Bethlehem Books Adventure Library
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Bethlehem Books Young Adult Bookshelf
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Beyond the Myth
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Bondage of the Will
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Book Thief
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Breath of Peace
Hawk and the Dove Series #7
by Penelope Wilcock
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Modern Library Exploration
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Brethren
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Bridge to the Sun
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Brightest Heaven of Invention
by Peter Leithart
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Brit. Lit. Volume 9
by P. G. Wodehouse
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Bruchko
by Bruce Olson
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Bruchko and the Motilone Miracle
by Bruce Olson
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By Far Euphrates
by Deborah Alcock
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Caine Mutiny
by Herman Wouk
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1952 Pulitzer Prize Winner
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Call to Conscience
by Martin Luther King, Jr., Edited by Clayborne Carson and Kris Shepard
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Canterbury Tales
Penguin Classics
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from Penguin Classics
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Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer, translated by David Wright
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Captain, My Captain
by Deborah Meroff
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Chance to Die
by Elisabeth Elliot
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Charis in the World of Wonders
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Children of the Storm
by Natasha Vins
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Churchill
by Paul Johnson
Reprint from Penguin Putnam
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Citizen Soldiers
by Stephen Ambrose
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Civil War
Penguin Classics
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Civil War: A Narrative - 3 Volume Set
by Shelby Foote
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Co. Aytch
by Sam Watkins
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Code Name Verity
by Elizabeth Wein
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Colonial Experience
A Basic History of the United States Volume 1
by Clarence B. Carson
from American Textbook Committee
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Commodore Hornblower
Hornblower Series #9
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Communist Manifesto
Penguin Classics
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Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Penguin Classics
by Mark Twain
from Penguin Classics
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$10.00
Conquest of Gaul
Penguin Classics
by Julius Caesar
from Penguin Classics
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$12.00
Consolation of Philosophy
by Ancius Boethius
from Penguin Classics
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$16.00
Coronation of Glory
Reformation Trail Series #12
by Deborah Meroff
from Inheritance Publications
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Czar, The
by Deborah Alcock
from Inheritance Publications
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Daisy Chain
by Charlotte Yonge
from Beautiful Feet Books
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Darius, Artaxerxes, and Ahasuerus in the Bible
by James B. Jordan
from Athanasius Press
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$8.95
David Livingstone
by C. Silvester Horne
from Christian Liberty Press
Biography for 7th-10th grade
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$11.75
Defender of the Faith
William and Mary Trilogy Volume 2
by Marjorie Bowen
from Inheritance Publications
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Discoverers
by Daniel J. Boorstin
from Vintage Classics
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$22.00
Doctor Adrian
Reformation Trail Series #13
by Deborah Alcock
from Inheritance Publications
Historical fiction for 9th-12th grade
in Reformation Trail Series (Location: FIC-WH06)
$15.95
Done and Dared in Old France
Huguenot Inheritance Series #7
by Deborah Alcock
from Inheritance Publications
Historical fiction for 7th-10th grade
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$14.95
Doomed Queen Anne
A Young Royals Book
by Carolyn Meyer
from Harcourt
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in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$11.99
Driven into Exile
Huguenot Inheritance Series #5
by Charlotte Maria Tucker
from Inheritance Publications
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$9.95
Early History of Rome
by Livy
from Penguin Classics
Historical Non-Fiction for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$16.00
Ecclesiastical History of the English People
Penguin Classics
by Bede (translation by Leo Sherley-Price)
from Penguin Classics
Church History for 10th-Adult
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$15.00
Ecclesiastical History of the English People
by Bede (edited by Judith McClure & Roger Collins)
from Oxford University
Church History for 10th-Adult
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$13.95
Elizabeth I
by Jacob Abbott, updated for the present day reader by Knox Merkle
from Canon Press
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$12.00
Endurance
by Alfred Lansing
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Escape
Huguenot Inheritance Series #1
by A. Van der Jagt
from Inheritance Publications
Historical fiction for 7th-10th grade
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$10.95
Euclid's Elements
by Euclid & Sir Thomas Heath (translator)
2nd edition from Green Lion Press
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$29.95
Euripides I
by Euripides
from University of Chicago
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$12.00
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by Euripides
from Dover Publications
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$2.50
Evidence Not Seen
by Darlene Deibler Rose
from HarperCollins
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Faerie Queene Book 1
by Edmund Spenser, edited with an introduction by Carol V. Kaske
from Hackett Publishing Company
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$15.00
Faerie Queene Book 2
by Edmund Spenser
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Allegory/Epic Poetry for 10th-Adult
in Renaissance & Reformation Literature (Location: LIT3-REN)
$14.00
Faerie Queene Book 3 & 4
by Edmund Spenser
from Hackett Publishing Company
Allegory/Epic Poetry for 10th-Adult
in Renaissance & Reformation Literature (Location: LIT3-REN)
$16.00
Faerie Queene Book 5
by Edmund Spenser
from Hackett Publishing Company
Allegory/Epic Poetry for 10th-Adult
in Renaissance & Reformation Literature (Location: LIT3-REN)
$14.00
Faerie Queene Book 6
by Edmund Spenser
from Hackett Publishing Company
Allegory/Epic Poetry for 10th-Adult
in Renaissance & Reformation Literature (Location: LIT3-REN)
$14.00
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