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History CurriculumHistory Resources

As with most things, C.S. Lewis had a unique view of history. For him, the really important bits were the stories—he makes a distinction between actual historical realities and the idealized versions of them handed down which make heroes and villains of mere men and women. It's not that the stories are completely false, but their value is for character-building, not as factual data.

The tales of George Washington's bravery in battle, coolness under pressure, rigorous truthfulness, and unflagging piety may accurately preserve the essence of his temperament and nobility, but not all of them are strictly historical. The point of these stories isn't to impart facts, however, it's to offer an example of goodness for the rest of us to emulate.

Getting the facts right is still important, though. As Christians, we can't afford to have a false understanding of "the old days." Mankind is fallen, and the story of his sojourn on Earth is filled with war, suffering, disease, unfaithfulness, pride and envy; a study of history that omits those elements is both false and useless. False, because it is incomplete, and useless, because it tells us nothing of the human condition or our current situation.

It's a bit of a mystery to us why non-Christians are motivated to study the past. For believers, the end goal isn't just acquisition of facts about events and cultures, it's the instillation of a thoroughly Christian worldview, an understanding of the course of the human endeavour as decreed and guided by God Himself.

The story of Jesus Christ is central. It is the only history story that fulfills the character-building element Lewis looked for, while remaining absolutely true in every detail. Man is fallen and he does struggle against God, but through Christ there is hope of redemption, a chance to connect heaven and earth through the Atonement. Christ is the ultimate example of God's providence.

In the Reformed tradition, God's sovereignty is a very big deal. According to the doctrine of divine decree, God has ordered all things that were, are and will come to be for His own good pleasure and glory. His hand is thus present everywhere, in the privatest private life and the most public and widespread crisis. God is in control, providentially guiding nations, men, and the entire cosmos.

This very doctrine is perhaps what best explains the humanist's interest in history (whether he be atheist, agnostic, pagan). Man's natural bent is to make himself the hero of the story, to show how people can sway the trajectory of all things. God's version is quite different, and the two are naturally in conflict. Resolution may only be found in Christ.

For, while God decrees and guides all things, He has also (paradoxically) decreed man's free will and personal responsibility. Men do change the course of kingdoms, but it is only through God's agency. A proper Christian study of history takes both truths into account, and tells the stories of good guys and bad guys through the light of everything God's Word says about human nature and divine control.

We encourage you to take great comfort and joy in your study of history. Read books, watch movies (carefully noting that a lot of the story is likely to be inaccurate in detail), go on fieldtrips to forts and battlefields and birthplaces. Most of all, talk about these things. The end goal, after all, isn't to know a bunch of trivia, but to understand what God has done and continues to do.

No one knows for sure what the end of history will look like, except that every knee in heaven and on earth will bow to the returned glorious Christ, who comes to judge the living and the dead. What we believe about Him will determine whether that culmination will be filled with joy or loathing (everyone will be terrified). He is the author of history, and its centerpiece; honor Him in your study of it.

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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'But Now I See': The Life of John Newton
by Josiah Bull
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1,001 Things Everyone Should Know About American History
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100 Great Wonders of the World
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100 Most Important Events in Christian History
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from Revell Publishing
Church History Reference for 9th-Adult
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100 Most Important Events in Church History (Magazine)
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101 Hymn Stories - audio book on CD
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102 Favorite Paintings By Norman Rockwell
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1066: The Year of the Conquest
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1776
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1861: The Civil War Awakening
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500 Nations
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$28.00 (1 in stock)
501 Must-Visit Cities
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
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Abraham Lincoln: The Man & His Faith
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Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies
Hornblower Series #11
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from Little, Brown & Company
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Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies
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from Little, Brown & Company
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$14.00 (1 in stock)
Admiral of the Ocean Sea
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from Atlantic Monthly Press
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
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Aeneid
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Aeschylus I: The Oresteia (old)
The Complete Greek Tragedies
by Aeschylus (translation by Richmond Lattimore)
from University of Chicago
Ancient Greek Tragedy for 10th-Adult
in Clearance: Literature (Location: ZCLE-LIT)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Aeschylus' Oresteian Trilogy
Penguin Classics
by Aeschylus, translated by Phillip Vellacott
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Ancient Greek Tragedy for 10th-Adult
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$13.00 $7.00 (1 in stock)
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Age of Faith
Story of Civilization IV
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$15.00 (2 in stock)
Age of Fighting Sail
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1st edition from Doubleday & Company
American Naval History for 8th-Adult
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$9.00 (1 in stock)
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
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Story of Civilization IX
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$15.00 (1 in stock)
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by Sue Butterworth, editor
from Chartwell Books
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$18.00 (1 in stock)
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by Lambert Florin
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$6.50 (1 in stock)
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$4.50 (1 in stock)
Alchemy, the Ancient Science
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
Alexander Hamilton
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$10.00 (2 in stock)
Alexander the Great, Killer of Men
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$5.00 (2 in stock)
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
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Pivotal Moments in American History
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Alphabet Makers
by Hyatt Moore
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
America in the Air War
by Edward Jablonski
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
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2nd edition from American Vision Press
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
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by George C. Herring
2nd edition from McGraw-Hill
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
America's Providential History
by Mark Beliles & Stephen McDowell
from Providence Foundation
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$8.00 (6 in stock)
American Children Through Their Books
by Sister Monica Kiefer
1970 printing from University of Pennsylvania Press
for Adult
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$9.00 (1 in stock)
American Civil War
by Robert K. Krick
from Osprey Publishing
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$6.50 (1 in stock)
American Covenant
by Marshall Foster
from Mayflower Institute
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American Dream
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from Providence Foundation
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
American Fishermen
by Albert Cook Church (photography), text by James B. Connolly
from Bonanza Books
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
American Heritage History of the American Revolution
by Bruce Lancaster
from American Heritage Publishing Co.
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American Heritage History of the Indian Wars
by Robert M. Utley, Wilcomb E. Washburn
Revised from American Heritage Publishing Co.
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
American Indian Dances
by John L. Squires & Robert E. McLean
from The Ronald Press Co.
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American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
American Nation
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from Riverside Press
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$6.50 (1 in stock)
American Passage
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from Harper Perennial
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
American President
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$6.00 (2 in stock)
American Revolutionaries
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
American Sailing Coasters of the North Atlantic
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1979 Reprint from Bonanza Books
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
American Ship Models and How to Build Them
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
American Spirit
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American Story: The Revolutionaries
Time-Life: The American Story
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Americanization of Benjamin Franklin
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
An Autobiography or The Story of My Experiments with Truth
by M. K. Gandhi
from Navajivan Publishing House
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Analects
by Confucius; translated by Annping Chin
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Ancient City
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First Thus from Oxford University
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$14.00 (2 in stock)
Ancient Egypt
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$18.00 (1 in stock)
Andersonville
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1955 Pulitzer Prize Winner
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Annals
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from Hackett Publishing Company
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
Anne Bradstreet
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Biography for 10th-Adult
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$13.99 $8.00 (1 in stock)
Anselm of Canterbury: The Major Works
Oxford World's Classics
by Anselm, edited and introduction by Brian Davies and Gillian Evans
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$14.95 $8.00 (1 in stock)
Antigone
Dover Thrift Editions
by Sophocles, translated by Sir George Young
from Dover Publications
Ancient Tragedy for 9th-Adult
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$3.00 $2.00 (2 in stock)
Apollo on the Moon
by Henry S. F. Cooper, Jr.
from Dial Press
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Archko Volume
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Reprint Edition from Keats Publishing, Inc
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Are We to Be a Nation?
by Richard B. Bernstein, with Kym S. Rice
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Arms and Armor Annual
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Art and Artists of Russia
by Richard Hare
from Methuen
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$15.00 (1 in stock)
Art of Chinese Cuisine
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from Tuttle Publishing
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$4.80 (1 in stock)
Art of the Catapult
by William Gurstelle
from Chicago Review Press
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$9.00 (1 in stock)
Art of the Renaissance
by Peter and Linda Murray
1999 reprint from Thames and Hudson
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Art of War
by Sun Tzu
Later Printing from Dover Publications
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$5.95 $3.00 (1 in stock)
Arts of the Sailor
by Hervey Garrett Smith
Reprint from Dover Publications
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Association of Small Bombs
by Karan Mahajan
from Penguin Books
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
At Home with Madhur Jaffrey
by Madhur Jaffrey
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
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$6.40 (1 in stock)
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Atlas of Oregon
by William G. Loy (director and cartographer), text by Clyde P. Patton
from University of Oregon
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
Atlas of the Islamic World
by Francis Robinson
from Facts On File
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Atlas of the North American Indian
by Carl Waldman
1st edition from Facts On File
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$9.50 (1 in stock)
August 1914
by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$12.00 (2 in stock)
Australia: Beyond the Black Stump
by Gary Lewis
from Peter Antill-Rose
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
Dover Thrift Editions
by James Weldon Johnson
from Dover Publications
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$4.00 $2.50 (2 in stock)
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Dover Thrift Editions
by Benjamin Franklin
from Dover Publications
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$6.00 $2.50 (1 in stock)
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
World's Greatest Literature
by Benjamin Franklin
from Spencer Press
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
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by Benvenuto Cellini
from International Collectors Library
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$11.50 (1 in stock)
B. Franklin, Printer
by David A. Adler
from Holiday House
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$8.00 (2 in stock)
Baby Blessing
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from Laughing Elephant
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
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by Earl Thollander
from Clarkson Potter Publishers
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Bandon by the Sea
by Dow Beckham
from Arago Books
for Adult
in Pacific States (Location: HISV-PNW)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
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