Cultural History

You'll often hear proponents of whole-book education methods talk about the benefit of learning history through literature. They aren't talking about the kind of history you might learn in a textbook—for them, knowing the dates of the Thirty Years' War or the name of the first prime minister of Australia isn't that important. The kind of history you'll learn in novels and diaries and essays is cultural history.

How people live, what they learn in school, the weapons they use, their religion, how they perceive their role in the world: these are all elements of culture that fiction and private documents reveal much better and more thoroughly than books simply detailing facts. Source documents are the product as much of the culture in which they're written, after all, as they are the result of the authors' own invention.

Books simply about the customs and daily life of a people group do have their place, too. You might not have as intimate a portrait of Victorian England after reading What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew as you would after reading Great Expectations, but you'll learn plenty. Sometimes you just need the straightforward facts, and at times like those novels are not your friends.

The real question for many, however, isn't how do I learn about different cultures?, but WHY should I learn about different cultures? Well, there's no law saying you have to, but aside from the fun you can have doing so, learning about foreign or lost cultures is one way to better understand your own place in the grand scheme of things.

It's not that the Chinese New Year festival will shed any great light on your own situation, but the deeper you study the cultural contexts around the globe, the more you realize how similar people really are. Understanding connections is one of the great advantages of a well-rounded education; the connections between people a solid grounding in cultural history can offer are especially poignant.

Of course, reading about the origins of your own culture will help you understand why you do things the way you do, why you think the way you do, why the people around you are the way they are. As Christians, this knowledge can help us share the Gospel easier than if we knew nothing of the background of the people we try to reach, and that is the one reason for studying cultural history that trumps all the others.

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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All the Children of the World
by Karen Mezek Leimert
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Art of the Southeastern Indians
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Baby Blessing
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Bach's Goldberg Variations
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Beethoven's Heroic Symphony (Once Upon a Masterpiece)
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Benjamin Franklin
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Blockade Runners and Ironclads
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Brave Harriet
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Bravo! Brava!
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Brother Hugo and the Bear
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Carl Larsson's A Home
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Child's Introduction to Art
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Child's Introduction to the Orchestra
by Robert Levine
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Child's Introduction to the World
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Children from Australia to Zimbabwe
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Children Just Like Me
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Children Just Like Me: Celebrations
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Children of Foreign Lands
by Elizabeth F. McCrady, verses by Kate Cox Goddard, illustrated by Ninon Macknight
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Chopin
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Christopher Columbus
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500 Anv from Tyndale House
Biography for Preschool-3rd Grade
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City Book
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Clara Barton: Amazing Civil War Nurse
Amazing Americans
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Come Look With Me: Artist at Work
by R. Sarah Richardson
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Come Look with Me: Enjoying Art with Children
by Gladys S. Blizzard
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Daily Life in the Pilgrim Colony 1636
by Paul Erickson
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DK Eyewitness Visual Dictionary of Military Uniforms
DK Visual Dictionaries
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DK Super Cool Tech
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Doctor Like Papa
by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock, Illustrated by James Bernardin
First Edition from HarperCollins
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Duke Ellington
by Andrea Davis Pinkney
1st edition from Hyperion/Madison Press
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1999 Caldecott Honor Book
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Eye for Color
by Natasha Wing, Art by Julia Breckenreid
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Flight
by Robert Burleigh; illustrated by Mike Wimmer
from Philomel Books
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1992 NCTE Orbis Pictus Award
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Food and Recipes of Westward Expansion
Cooking Throughout American History
by George Erdosh
1st edition from PowerKids Press
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Girl Who Drew Butterflies
by Joyce Sidman
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2019 Robert F. Sibert Medal winner
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Girl with a Watering Can
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Go Figure! A Totally Cool Book About Numbers
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Gonna Sing My Head Off
by Kathleen Krull, illustrated by Allen Garns
First Printing from Scholastic Reference
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Historic Communities
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Hairdo!
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Haydn's Farewell Symphony
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How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightning
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How Children Lived
by Chris Rice, Melanie Rice
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How We Travel
by James Franklin Chamberlain
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If the World Were 100 People
by Jackie McCann, illustrated by Aaron Cushley
from Crown Books for Young Readers
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If the World Were a Village
by David J. Smith
1st edition from Kids Can Press
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If You Were There in 1492
by Barbara Brenner
1st ed from Bradbury Press
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In Search of Norman Rockwell's America
by Photography by Kevin Rivoli, Artwork by Norman Rockwell
from Howard Books
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Joke's on George
by Michael O. Tunnell; illustrated by Kathy Osborn
from Tambourine Books
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Kingfisher Atlas of World History
by Simon Adams
Revised from Kingfisher
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Kings, Queens, Knights, & Jesters
by Lynn Edelman Schnurnberger
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Leonardo da Vinci
by Norman V. Marshall
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Leonardo: Beautiful Dreamer
by Robert Byrd
1st edition from Dutton Children's Books
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2004 NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book
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$9.00 (1 in stock)
Librarian Who Measured the Earth
by Kathryn Lasky
from Little, Brown & Company
Biography for 2nd-5th grade
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Lindbergh
Classic Starts
by Torben Kuhlmann, Translated by David Henry Wilson
from NorthSouth
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Linnea in Monet's Garden
by Christina Bjork & Lena Anderson
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Biography for Preschool- 3rd Grade
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Lives of the Artists
by M. B. Goffstein
from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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Man Makes His World
by Patrick Lynch
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Maps
by Aleksandra Mizielinska, Daniel Mizielinski
from Big Picture Press
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$37.99
Marguerite Makes a Book
by Bruce Robertson
from J. Paul Getty Museum
Picture Books for 2nd-5th grade
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Matisse: Painter of the Essential
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by Yolande Baillet
from Chelsea House Publishing
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$7.00 (1 in stock)
Me on the Map
by Joan Sweeney, Illustrated by Qin Leng
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for Kindergarten-3rd grade
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$6.50 (1 in stock)
Metropolitan Opera Guide
by Mary Ellis Peltz and Robert Lawrence, illustrated by Alexandre Serebriakoff
7th edition from Modern Library
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Mike and Dick on a Washington Apple Farm
The Farm Life Series
by Joan Liffring
from Follett Publishing Co.
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$16.00 (1 in stock)
Military Uniforms, 1686-1918
A Grosset All-Color Guide
by Rene North, illustrated by John Berry
from Grosset & Dunlap
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My Brothers' Flying Machine
by Jane Yolen
from Little, Brown & Company
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
My Favorite Songs
by Maria Trapp
from Veritas Press
for Kindergarten-Adult
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$17.00
My Librarian Is a Camel
by Margriet Ruurs
from Boyds Mill Press
for 1st-3rd grade
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$9.00 (1 in stock)
Norman Rockwell's America
by Christopher Finch, Illustrated by Norman Rockwell
from Reader's Digest
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Norman Rockwell: Storyteller with a Brush
by Beverly Gherman
from Atheneum
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
October 45
by Jean-Louis Besson, translated by Carol Volk
from Harcourt Brace Jovanich
for 2nd-6th grade
in WWII: European Theater (Location: HISA-20WW2E)
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Passport to the World
by Craig Froman
from Master Books
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People in the Past
Dorling Kindersley Picturepedia
from DK Publishing
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Picture Book of Thomas Alva Edison
by David A. Adler, illustrated by John & Alexandra Wallner
from Holiday House
Picture Book Biography for 1st-3rd grade
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Portrait of a Farm Family
by Raymond Bial
from Houghton Mifflin
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Prairie Lotus
by Linda Sue Park
from Clarion Books
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in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$16.99
Rachel Carson
by Melissa Stewart
from Ferguson Publishing Company
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Red Baron
by Richard A. Boning, illustrated by Harry Schaare
from Dexter & Westbrook
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
Right Word
by Jen Bryant
from Eerdmans
for 1st-4th grade
2015 Caldecott Honor Book, 2015 Robert F. Sibert Medal winner
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$18.99
Rousseu: Still Voyages
Art For Children
by Didier Grosjean and Claudine Roland, illustrated by Francine De Boeck, translated by John Goodman
from Chelsea House Publishing
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Snowflake Bentley
by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
from Houghton Mifflin
Biographies of Scientists and Inventors for 1st-3rd grade
1999 Caldecott Medal winner
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$17.99
Songs to Grow On
by Beatrice Landeck, piano arrangements by Florence White, illustrated by David Stone Martin
from Edward B. Marks Music Corporation
for Kindergarten-6th grade
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Sparky & Spike
by Barbara Lowell, illustrated by Dan Andreasen
from Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
Picture Biography for Preschool-3rd grade
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$16.95
Steam Engine
Inventions That Changed Our Lives
by Beatrice Siegel
from Walker and Company
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Stephen Biesty's Cross-Sections: Man-of-War
by Stephen Biesty
from DK Publishing
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Story of Science
by Anna Claybourne, illustrated by Adam Larkum
from Usborne
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in History of Science & Mathematics (Location: SCI-HIS)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Story of Ships
by Frank O. Braynard, paintings by Fouille
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 3rd-6th grade
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Story of the Incredible Orchestra
by Bruce Koscielniak
from HMH Books for Young Readers
for 1st-3rd grade
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
The Amish
by Doris Faber, Illustrated by Michael E. Erkel
from Doubleday & Company
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Tomatoes, Potatoes, Corn, and Beans
by Sylvia A. Johnson
1st edition from Atheneum
for 3rd-7th grade
in Food & Farming Around the World (Location: HISMC-FOOD)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Tracing Our Japanese Roots
by Gary Kawaguchi
from Avalon Travel Publishing
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in Clearance: History & Geography (Location: ZCLE-HIS)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Trombone Shorty
by Troy Andrews, illustrated by Bryan Collier
from Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
for Kindergarten-3rd grade
2016 Caldecott Honor Book, 2016 Coretta Scott King Award Winner
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$17.95
UNICEF's Festival Book
by Judith Spiegelman, illustrated by Audrey Preissler
from UNICEF
for 2nd-5th grade
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Usborne Famous Composers Reference Book
by Anthony Marks
from Usborne
for 2nd-6th grade
in Music History (Location: ELE-MUSHIS)
$6.30 (1 in stock)
Usborne History of Science in 100 Pictures
by Abigail Wheatley, illustrated by Ian McNee
from Usborne
for 2nd-5th grade
in History of Science & Mathematics (Location: SCI-HIS)
$5.40 (1 in stock)
Usborne Introduction to Modern Art
by Rosie Dickins
from Scholastic Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in Art History & Appreciation (Location: ELE-ARTHIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Vincent Van Gogh
by Jan Greenberg, Sandra Jordan
from Delacorte Press
for 3rd-6th grade
2002 Robert F. Sibert Honor Book
in Artists & Illustrators (Location: ELE-ARTISTS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
West Point Second Classman
by Red Reeder
Second Printing 1958 from Duell, Sloan and Pearce
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$45.00 (1 in stock)
What Food Is This?
by Rosmarie Hausherr
from Scholastic Reference
for 3rd-6th grade
in Food & Farming Around the World (Location: HISMC-FOOD)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
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