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
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Art of Keeping Cool
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Bud, Not Buddy
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Childhood of Famous Americans
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Coloring Book of Ancient Egypt
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Columbus and the Renaissance Explorers
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Childhood of Famous Americans
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Puffin Newbery Library
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Great Little Madison
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Guns for General Washington
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Heroes & Monsters Of Greek Myth
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Hidden
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House of Dies Drear
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House on Walenska Street
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I Survived the Bombing of Pearl Harbor, 1941
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In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson
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In Their Own Words: Lewis and Clark
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Indian Captive
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1942 Newbery Honor Book
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Ivan and the Informer
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Ivan and the Secret in the Suitcase
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Jimmy Spoon and the Pony Express
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Journey to America
Journey to America Saga #1
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King's Fifth
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Letters from Rifka
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Lights In Lisuland
CF4Kids Trail Blazers
by Irene Howat
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Rocky Ridge Years Book 2
by Roger Lea MacBride
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Lost Star
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Magic Tree House #16 - Research Guide / Fact Tracker
by Mary Pope Osborne
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Magic Tree House #38 (Merlin Mission #10) - Fact Tracker
companion to Merlin Mission #10 - Monday with a Mad Genius
by Mary Pope Osborne, Natalie Pope Boyce
from Random House Books for Young Readers
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Magic Tree House
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Meet Christopher Columbus
Second Series Landmark / Step Up reprints
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Meet George Washington
Second Series Landmark / Step Up reprints
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Meet George Washington
by Joan Heilbroner
First Scholastic Printing 2001 from Scholastic Inc.
Biography for 3rd-6th grade
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Molly Pitcher: Young Patriot
Childhood of Famous Americans
by Augusta Stevenson
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My Brother Sam Is Dead
by James & Christopher Collier
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1975 Newbery Honor Book
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Number the Stars
by Lois Lowry
from Yearling
Historical fiction for 4th-8th grade
1990 Newbery Medal winner
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Odyssey (retold)
Puffin Classics
by Geraldine McCaughrean retells Homer
Puffin Classics from Puffin Books
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Old Yeller
by Fred Gipson
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1957 Newbery Honor Book
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On the Way Home
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
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One Thousand Paper Cranes
by Takayuki Ishii
2001 Printing from Laurel-Leaf Books
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$3.50 (1 in stock)
Parallel Journeys
by Eleanor Ayers, Helen Waterford, & Alfons Heck
from Aladdin Paperbacks
Historical Non-Fiction for 4th-7th grade
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Pedro's Journal
by Pam Conrad
from Scholastic Inc.
Historical Fiction for 4th-6th grade
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Perilous Road
by William O. Steele
from Harcourt
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Pioneers Go West
Landmark Series
by George Stewart
from Random House
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Pocahontas and the Strangers
by Clyde Robert Bulla
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Road to Agra
by Aimee Sommerfelt, illustrated by Ulf Aas
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Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
by Mildred Taylor
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Realistic Fiction for 5th-8th grade
1977 Newbery Medal winner
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Roman Activity Book
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Saint Athanasius
by F. A. Forbes
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Sarah, Plain and Tall
by Patricia MacLachlan
30th Anniversary from HarperCollins
Family Stories for 2nd-6th grade
1986 Newbery Medal winner
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Second Mrs. Giaconda
by E. L. Konigsburg
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September 11
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Serpent Never Sleeps
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Shades of Gray
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Historical Fiction for 4th-6th grade
Scott O'Dell Award
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Shades of Gray
by Carolyn Reeder
from Avon Books
Historical Fiction for 4th-6th grade
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Shakespeare's Spy
Shakespeare Stealer #3
by Gary Blackwood
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Shoes for Everyone
by Barbara Mitchell
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Biography for 4th-6th grade
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Sink or Swim
by Steve Watkins
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So Far From the Bamboo Grove
by Yoko Kawashima Watkins
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Historical fiction for 4th-8th grade
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Sojourner Truth
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Squanto
by Clyde Robert Bulla
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Biography for 3rd-5th grade
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Star Fisher
by Laurence Yep
from Scholastic Inc.
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in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Story of Harriet Tubman
Dell Yearling Biography
by Kate McMullan
from Yearling
Biography for 3rd-6th grade
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Story of King Arthur
by Children's Dover Thrift, Tom Crawford
from Dover Publications
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$1.50 (3 in stock)
Story of Thomas Alva Edison, Inventor
Scholastic Biographies
by Margaret Davidson
from Scholastic Inc.
for 4th-7th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$2.50 (3 in stock)
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