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
Weekly Reader Heroes of the Civil War
by Susan Dye Lee, illustrated by Ralph Canaday
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Adventures of Robin Hood
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Lives to Remember
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Revolution!
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American Revolution Primary Sources
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People of the Ancient World
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Life Long Ago
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by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
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by R. Conrad Stein
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Triangle Histories: The Revolutionary War
by Scott Ingram
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See and Read: Beginning to Read Biography
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Makers of America
by Ruth Cromer Weir, illustrated by Rus Anderson
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Beorn the Proud
by Madeleine Polland, Illustrated by William Stobbs
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Black Ships Before Troy
by Rosemary Sutcliff & Alan Lee
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Greek Mythology for 3rd-8th grade
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Land of the Free Series
by Elsie Reif Ziegler, illustrated by Jacob Landau
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by Shirley Graham
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Great Journeys
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Builders of the Old World
by Gertrude Hartman
Second Edition from D. C. Heath and Company
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Colonial American Craftsmen
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Carl Linnaeus
Great Minds of Science
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Castles
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Cat of Bubastes
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Caxton's Challenge
First American Edition from World Publishing Company
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Christian History of the American Revolution
by Verna Hall & Rosalie Slater
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Christmas on the Prairie
by Joan. Anderson
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Christopher Columbus and His Legacy
Opposing Viewpoints Series
by Mary Ellen Jones, Editor
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Christopher Columbus and the Discovery of the New World
by Jim Gallagher
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City! San Francisco
by George Ancona, Shirley Climo
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American War Series
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Clara Barton: Civil War Nurse
Historical American Biographies
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Cleopatra
by Diane Stanley & Peter Vennema
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Closer Look at Vikings
from Hamish Hamilton
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Colonial People: The Silversmith
by Wil Mara
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Colonial Places
by Sarah Howarth
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Confederate Girl: The Diary of Carrie Berry, 1864
by Carrie Berry; edited by Christy Steele and Anne Todd
from Capstone Press
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Constitution
American Symbols and their Meanings
by Hal Marcovitz
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Cook: Captain James Cook Charts the Pacific Ocean
by Jean Kinney Williams
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Cornet of Horse
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Cornet of Horse
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Cowboy Soldier
by Donald Russell, illustrated by Max Ranft
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Crazy Horse: The Story of an American Indian
by John R. Milton
Second Printing 1975 from Dillon Press
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Cross and Crescent
by Richard Suskind, illustrated by Victor Lazzaro
1st edition from W. W. Norton and Co.
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Customs and Fashions in Old New England
by Alice Morse Earle
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Dakota Dugout
by Ann Turner; illustrated by Ronald Himler
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Dark Venture
by Audrey White Beyer, illustrated by Leo & Diane Dillon
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Dash for Khartoum
by G. A. Henty
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Dash for Khartoum
by G. A. Henty
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Dear Levi
by Elvira Woodruff
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Discoverer: The Story of a Satellite
by Michael Chester and Saunders B. Kramer
from G.P. Putnam's Sons
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$18.00 (1 in stock)
Doctors
Colonial American Craftsmen
by Leonard Everett Fisher
from Franklin Watts
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Dog Crusoe
by R. M. Ballantyne
from Vision Forum
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Dragon and the Raven
by G. A. Henty
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Historical Fiction for 6th-10th grade
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Dragon and the Raven
by G. A. Henty
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Historical Fiction for 6th-10th grade
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Drinking Gourd
An I Can Read Book Level 3
by F. N. Monjo
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Historical Fiction for 2nd-4th grade
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Dust Bowl
by Patricia Lauber
Cadmus Edition from E.M. Hale and Company
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Early American Industrial Revolution
Let Freedom Ring
by Katie Bagley
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Earthquake!
by Kate Wilson
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Egyptian Pyramid
Inside Story
by Jacqueline Morley, Mark Bergin, John James
from Peter Bedrick Books
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Eliza Pinckney
Weekly Reader Heroes of the Revolution
by Susan & John Lee
from Children's Press
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$3.50 (1 in stock)
Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys
Cornerstones of Freedom
by R. Conrad Stein
from Children's Press
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Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys
Landmark #66
by Slater Brown
from Random House
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Explorers of the Arctic and Antarctic
by Edward F. Dolan
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Facing Death
by G. A. Henty
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Historical Fiction for 6th-10th grade
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Fall of Constantinople
by Ruth Tenzer Feldman
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Fast Forward Egyptian Mummies
by Henrietta McCall, illustrated by Dave Antram
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Ferdinand Magellan
by Milton Meltzer
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Ferdinand Magellan and the Discovery of the World Ocean
by Rebecca Stefoff
from Chelsea House Publishing
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$3.00 (1 in stock)
Ferdinand Magellan and the First Voyage Around the World
by Jim Gallagher
from Chelsea House Publishing
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$3.00 (2 in stock)
First Book of Ancient Rome
by Charles Alexander Robinson, Jr., Revised by Lorna Greenberg
Revised Edition from Franklin Watts
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First Book of the American Revolution
by Richard B. Morris
from Franklin Watts
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First Olympic Games
from Silver Burdett Press
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First Steamboat on the Mississippi
North Star Books #31
by Sterling North
from Houghton Mifflin
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in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Flag of the Dreadful Bear
from G.P. Putnam's Sons
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in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Follow the Dream
by Peter Sís
from Dragonfly Books
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in Age of Exploration (1450-1700) (Location: HISA-16EXP)
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