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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Aeneid for Boys and Girls
by Alfred J. Church
from Yesterday's Classics
Roman Mythology for 5th-8th grade
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Aeneid for Boys and Girls
by Alfred J. Church
from Living Book Press
Roman Mythology for 5th-8th grade
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Antoine of Oregon
America's Children
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Bears of Blue River
by Charles Major
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Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare
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by Edith Nesbit
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Best Bad Thing
by Yoshiko Uchida
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by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by N. C. Wyeth
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by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Frances Brundage
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Book of Marvels: Marvels of the Occident
by Richard Halliburton
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Book of Marvels: Marvels of the Orient
by Richard Halliburton
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by Hilda Van Stockum
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Burning of Rome
by Alfred J. Church
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by Kate Seredy
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by Frederick Marryat
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Children of the New Forest
by Frederick Marryat
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Children's Plutarch: Tales of the Greeks
by F. J. Gould
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Children's Plutarch: Tales of the Romans
by F. J. Gould, Reteller
from Yesterday's Classics
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Daisy Chain
by Charlotte Yonge
from Living Book Press
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Gabriel and the Hour Book
by Evaleen Stein
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Gabriel and the Hour Book
by Evaleen Stein
from Unknown Publisher
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Golden Age
by Kenneth Grahame, illustrated by Maxfield Parrish
from SeaWolf Press
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by Charles Boardman Hawes
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by Louise Andrews Kent
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He Went with Christopher Columbus
by Louise Andrews Kent
2022 Reprint from Living Book Press
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He Went with Drake
by Louise Andrews Kent
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by Louise Andrews Kent
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by Louise Andrews Kent
2022 Reprint from Living Book Press
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$15.99
He Went with Magellan
by Louise Andrews Kent
2022 Reprint from Living Book Press
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He Went with Marco Polo
by Louise Andrews Kent
2022 Reprint from Living Book Press
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He Went with Vasco da Gama
by Louise Andrews Kent
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Hereward the Wake
by Charles Kingsley
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by Charles Kingsley
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Heroes
by Charles Kingsley
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Iliad for Boys and Girls
by Alfred J. Church
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for 5th-8th grade
$11.95
Iliad for Boys and Girls
by Alfred J. Church
from Living Book Press
for 5th-8th grade
$7.99
In Freedom's Cause
by G. A. Henty
from Living Book Press
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in G. A. Henty Books (Location: FIC-HEN)
Ivanhoe
by Sir Walter Scott, Illustrated by Frank E. Schoonover
200th Anniversary from SeaWolf Press
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
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by Louisa May Alcott, Illustrated by Ellen Wetherald Ahrens
150th Anniversary from SeaWolf Press
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$9.95
Keeper of the Bees
by Gene Stratton-Porter, illustrated by Gordon Grant, decorations by Lee Thayer
from Purple House Press
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King Arthur and His Knights
by Maude Redford Warren
2nd edition from Yesterday's Classics
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Last of the Mohicans
Leatherstocking Tales #2
by James Fenimore Cooper, Illustrated by N. C. Wyeth
from SeaWolf Press
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$11.95
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by Charlotte M. Yonge
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by Louisa May Alcott, Illustrated by Reginald B. Birch
150th Anniversary from SeaWolf Press
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$9.95
Little Women
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America's Children
by James Otis
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Mary of Plymouth
America's Children
by James Otis
from Living Book Press
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Men of Iron
by Howard Pyle
2nd edition from Living Book Press
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$9.99
Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
by Howard Pyle
from Living Book Press
Fairy Tales, Fables, and Legends for 7th-9th grade
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Night Watch
by Isabelle Lawrence
from Purple House Press
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$13.99
Odyssey for Boys and Girls
by Alfred J. Church
from Yesterday's Classics
for 5th-8th grade
$11.95
Odyssey for Boys and Girls
by Alfred J. Church
from Living Book Press
for 5th-8th grade
$7.99
On the Edge of the Fjord
by Alta Halverson Seymour
from Purple House Press
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$11.99
Otto of the Silver Hand
by Howard Pyle
from Living Book Press
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$7.99
Plutarch's Lives for Boys and Girls
by W.H. Weston (reteller), Plutarch
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for 3rd-6th grade
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Red Badge of Courage
by Stephen Crane & Ambrose Bierce
from SeaWolf Press
Historical Fiction for 7th-10th grade
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$7.45
Richard of Jamestown
by James Otis
from Yesterday's Classics
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$11.95
Richard of Jamestown
by James Otis
from Living Book Press
for 3rd-5th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
Romulus
Makers of History series
by Jacob Abbott
from Yesterday's Classics
History for 8th-12th grade
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Sailing on the Ice: And Other Stories from the Old Squire's Farm
from Rutledge Hill Press
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$18.98
Scarlet Pimpernel
by Baroness Orczy
from SeaWolf Press
Action/Adventure for 6th-10th grade
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$9.95
Stephen of Philadelphia
America's Children
by James Otis
from Living Book Press
for 4th-6th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
Stories From Livy
by Alfred J. Church
from Yesterday's Classics
History for 6th-9th grade
in Classics Retold (Location: FIC-RET)
$11.95
Stories From Livy
by Alfred J. Church
from Yesterday's Classics
History for 6th-9th grade
in Classics Retold (Location: FIC-RET)
Stories From The Faerie Queene
by Edmund Spenser, retold by Mary MacLeod
from Living Book Press
for 8th-10th grade
in Classics Retold (Location: FIC-RET)
$12.99
Stories From the Greek Tragedians
by Alfred J. Church
from Yesterday's Classics
for 6th-9th grade
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$11.95
Stories of Robin Hood Told to the Children
by H. E. Marshall
from Yesterday's Classics
for 2nd-5th grade
$9.95
Stories of Roland Told to the Children
by H. E. Marshall
from Yesterday's Classics
for 2nd-5th grade
$9.95
Stories of the East from Herodotus
by Alfred J. Church
Ill from Yesterday's Classics
for 5th-8th grade
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$12.95
Story of the Iliad
by Alfred J. Church
from Living Book Press
Greek Mythology for 5th-8th grade
$9.99
Story of the Odyssey
by Alfred J. Church
from Living Book Press
Greek Mythology for 5th-8th grade
$8.99
Tanglewood Tales
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Ill from Yesterday's Classics
for 3rd-6th grade
$13.95 $8.00 (1 in stock)
Tanglewood Tales
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Ill from Living Book Press
for 3rd-6th grade
$16.99
Three Greek Children
by Alfred J. Church
from Yesterday's Classics
for 5th-8th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$11.95
Three Knocks on the Wall
by Evelyn Sibley Lampman
from Purple House Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$14.99
Tod of the Fens
by Elinor Whitney Field, Illustrated by Warwick Goble
from CreateSpace
for 6th-9th grade
1929 Newbery Honor Book
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$8.50
Toward Morning
by Alta Halverson Seymour
from Purple House Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$10.99
Viking Tales
by Jennie Hall
from Yesterday's Classics
for 7th-10th grade
$10.95
Viking Tales
by Jennie Hall
from Living Book Press
for 1st-4th grade
$8.99
Westward Ho!
by Charles Kingsley
from Living Book Press
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
White Company
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Illustrated by N. C. Wyeth
100th Anniversary from SeaWolf Press
Historical Fiction for 8th-Adult
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$12.95
Wonder Book for Girls and Boys
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
from Yesterday's Classics
Myths for 5th-10th grade
$12.95 $7.50 (1 in stock)
Wonder Book for Girls and Boys
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
from Living Book Press
Myths for 5th-10th grade
$15.99