United States History

What should we say about the United States of America? So much has already been said, adding our two cents is a bit redundant or presumptuous, depending on your perspective. Certainly, no one needs us to outline the facts, the major events and figures, or to describe our unique written Constitution and democratic-republican system.

We can offer a bit of perspective. It's nothing new, nothing we came up with on our own, but it is different from a lot of the prevailing notions about both history in general and our nation in particular.

For starters, there's no specific reference to the U.S. in the Bible. The principles found in God's Word that apply to all nations certainly apply to the United States as well, but we aren't a Christian nation, we don't hold a special place in biblical prophecy, and Manifest Destiny is the result of Enlightenment rationalist views about the Progress of Mankind rather than being rooted in any kind of Christian attitude.

That said, many of the first settlers of the New World were dedicated Christians seeking the right to worship God without the constraints of political entanglement or government-imposed strictures and doctrine. The Pilgrims came in 1620, just 13 years after the first successful English settlement at Jamestown, and the Puritan settlers followed soon after.

Their arrivals and colonization didn't make America Christian, of course. It was a broad continent, largely unknown, and the initial colonies weren't strictly bound together at first, as they were later to become. By that time, things had become substantially more secular, so that by the 18th century many Americans were just as degenerate as their European counterparts. Fortunately, men like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield were around to preach the true Gospel, and to initiate a revival known as the Great Awakening.

Secular forces were still at work, though. While there were definitely many Christians involved, the American Revolution was largely the result of Enlightenment philosophizing, and men were convinced that America could produce a virtuous and stable population if education and participatory government were enforced. So they rebelled against England, and the United States republic was formed.

Ever since, groups and individuals have tried to call Americans back to their Christian roots. That's the wrong strategy: we don't need to call anyone back to anything, we need to point the way forward to the pursuit of Christ and the bringing of His Gospel and glory to every corner of the earth no matter what our country of origin. That America has been so materially blessed simply means we have more options at our disposal for proclaiming and bringing the Word to the rest of the world.

Our study of United States history is consequently Christ-centered. Not because we think America is more Christian than other countries, but because it (like all other nations) is under Christ's control as King of Heaven and Lord of Time. Of course, you shouldn't abandon study of the facts, people and events, but they only attain true meaning when viewed through the lens of Christ's ultimate plan of redemption and self-glorification.

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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327 Items found Print
Active Filters: Biographies, 9th grade (Ages 14-15)
Abraham Lincoln & Frederick Douglass
by Russell Freedman
from Clarion Books
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Abraham Lincoln in Peace and War
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Abraham Lincoln's World
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Abraham Lincoln's World (pictorial hardcover)
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Historical Non-fiction for 7th-10th grade
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Admiral David Glasgow Farragut
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Admiral of the Ocean Sea
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Adventures of Davy Crockett
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Al Capone Does My Shirts
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2005 Newbery Honor Book
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Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr
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Anne Bradstreet
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Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
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Apostle of Liberty
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Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
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World's Greatest Literature
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Balboa: Swordsman and Conquistador
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Ben Franklin
Sterling Point Books
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Ben Snipes, Northwest Cattle King
by Roscoe Sheller
Third Edition from Binford & Mort Publishing
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Benjamin Franklin: The Autobiography and Other Writings
Signet Classics
by Benjamin Franklin
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$5.95
Betty Before X
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Beyond Stateliest Marble
Leaders in Action Series
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Biography of Benjamin Franklin
Sons of Liberty Series
by William M. Thayer
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Biography of George Washington
Sons of Liberty Series
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Biography of James A. Garfield
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Bombs and Blessings
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Bonhoeffer: The Cost of Freedom - Audio Drama (CD)
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$17.99
Book of Discovery
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$20.95
Book of Famous Explorers
Young Folks Library
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Booker T. Washington
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Boys in the Boat
by Daniel James Brown
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Boys in the Boat adapted for Young Readers
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Buffalo Bill
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Buffalo Bill's Life Story
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1966 printing from Holt, Rinehart and Winston
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Bulletproof George Washington
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Bulletproof George Washington
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Call of Duty
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Captain Cook
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Captain Edward L. Beach: Around the World Under Water
by Beril Becker
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Carry a Big Stick
Leaders in Action Series
by George Grant
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Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
by Jean Lee Latham
from Houghton Mifflin
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1956 Newbery Medal winner
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Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
by Jean Lee Latham, illustrated by John O'Hara Cosgrave II
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1956 Newbery Medal winner
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Carver: A Life in Poems
by Marilyn Nelson
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2002 Newbery Honor Book, Coretta Scott King Honor Award
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Cheer the Lonesome Traveller
by Leslie Alexander Lacy, illustrated by James Barkley
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Christopher Columbus
by John Abbott
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Christopher Columbus
by Samuel Eliot Morison
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Churchill
by Paul Johnson
Reprint from Penguin Putnam
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Claudette Colvin
by Philip Hoose
from Square Fish Publishing
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2010 Newbery Honor Book, 2010 Robert F. Sibert Honor Book, National Book Award
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Co. Aytch
by Sam Watkins
from Touchstone
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Combat Nurses of World War II
Landmark #116
by Wyatt Blassingame
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Landmark #116
by Wyatt Blassingame
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Come By Here
by Olivia Coolidge
from Houghton Mifflin
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Come On, Seabiscuit!
by Ralph Moody
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Cortes and the Aztec Conquest
by Irwin R. Blacker
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Danger in the Desert
by Roger Cohen
from Sterling Publishing Co.
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Daniel Boone: The Opening of the Wilderness
Landmark #21
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Davy Crockett
Landmark #57
by Stewart H. Holbrook
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Declaration of Independence with Short Biographies of its Signers
by Thomas Jefferson
from Applewood Books
Primary Source Documents for 9th-Adult
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Defeating the Totalitarian Lie
by Hilmar Von Campe
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Diary of a Young Girl
by Anne Frank
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Diary of a Young Girl
by Anne Frank
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Diary of a Young Girl
by Anne Frank
from Bantam Books
Biography for 7th-Adult
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Discoverers of the New World
by Joseph Berger
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Dolly Madison
Landmark #47
by Jane Mayer
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Early Days of a Cowboy on the Pecos
by James F. Hinkle
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Eleanor's Story
by Eleanor Ramrath Garner
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Emancipation Proclomation
by Tonya Bolden
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Escape from Corregidor
by Edward D. Whitcomb
from Regnery Publishing, Inc.
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Evidence Not Seen
by Darlene Deibler Rose
from HarperCollins
Biography for 9th-Adult
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$16.99
Explorers, Missionaries, and Trappers
by Kieran Doherty
from Oliver-Nelson Books
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Eyewitnesses at the Battle of Franklin
by David R. Logsdon
4th edition
for 9th-Adult
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Fabulous Opal Whiteley
by Elbert Bede
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Faith of Our Fathers: Scenes from American Church History
by Mark Sidwell, editor
from Bob Jones University Press
Church History Reference for 7th-12th grade
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$7.50 (1 in stock)
Faithful Spy
by John Hendrix
from Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
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Falcons of France
by Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall
from Little, Brown & Company
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Ferdinand and Isabella
by William Hickling Prescott
from Heritage Press
Biography for 9th-Adult
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Fighting the Flying Circus
by Captain Eddie V. Rickenbacker
1965 Edition from Doubleday & Company
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in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
First Book in American History
by Edward Eggleston
2nd edition from Lost Classics Book Co.
for 7th-9th grade
in Biography Anthologies (Location: BIO-ANTH)
For You They Signed
by Marilyn Boyer
All-in-One Edition from Master Books
for 7th-9th grade
in U.S. History Curriculum (Location: HISCUR-US)
$39.19
Forgotten Founding Father
Leaders in Action Series
by Stephen Mansfield
from Cumberland House
Biography for 9th-12th grade
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$16.95 $10.00 (2 in stock)
Four Voyages
by Christopher Columbus
from Penguin Classics
Historical Primary Sources for 9th-Adult
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$17.00
Francis Asbury
by Charles Ludwig
from Mott Media
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Free Indeed
by Mark Sidwell
Expanded from Bob Jones University Press
Biography for 6th-12th grade
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$9.00 (1 in stock)
George B. McClellan
by Michael McHugh
2nd edition from Christian Liberty Press
Biography for 7th-10th grade
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$10.00
George Rogers Clark, Soldier in the West
by Walter Havinghurst
from McGraw-Hill
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George Washington
Sterling Point Books
by Sterling North
from Sterling Publishing Co.
Biography for 5th-9th grade
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$4.50 (1 in stock)
George Washington
by M. D. Holmes
from John C. Winston
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George Washington & the Founding of a Nation
by Albert Marrin
from Dutton Children's Books
Biography for 7th-10th grade
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George Washington & the Founding of a Nation
by Albert Marrin
from Dutton Juvenile
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in New Nation (1783-1800) (Location: HISA-18NN)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
George Washington and the Making of a Nation
by Marcus Cunliffe
from Troll Associates
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in American Heritage Junior Library (Location: VIN-HIS)
George Washington Carver
Landmark #38
by Anne Terry White
from Random House
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George Washington Carver: An American Biography
by Rackham Holt
from Doubleday, Doran & Company Inc.
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