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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1,001 Things Everyone Should Know About American History
by John A. Garraty
1st edition from Nelson Doubleday, Inc.
for 9th-Adult
in American History Reference (Location: HISA-REF)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
11 Days in December
by Stanley Weintraub
from New American Library
for Adult
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1776
by David McCullough
from Simon and Schuster
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1776
by David McCullough
1st edition from Simon and Schuster
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
1861: The Civil War Awakening
by Adam Goodheart
from Vintage Books
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
500 Nations
by Alvin M. Josephy, Jr.
1st edition from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
$28.00 (1 in stock)
Abraham Lincoln: Great Speeches
Dover Thrift Editions
by Abraham Lincoln & John Grafton, editor
from Dover Publications
Political Philosophy for 10th-Adult
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Abraham Lincoln: The Man & His Faith
by G. Frederick Owen
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Admiral David Glasgow Farragut
by Chester G. Hearn
from US Naval Institute Press
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Admiral of the Ocean Sea
by Samuel E. Morison
from Atlantic Monthly Press
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Adventures of Buffalo Bill
by Col. William F. Cody
from Harper & Brothers
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Adventures of Captain Bonneville
by Washington Irving, illustrated by Robert Reynolds
Klickitat from Binford & Mort Publishing
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Adventures of Davy Crockett
by David Crockett, illustrated by John W. Thomason
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Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Mark Twain
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Age of Exploration
Great Ages of Man
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Age of Fighting Sail
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American Naval History for 8th-Adult
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Age of Fighting Sail
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American Naval History for 8th-Adult
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Air Forces of the World
by Sue Butterworth, editor
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Album of Memories
by Tom Brokaw
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Album of the Civil War
by William Loren Katz
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Alexander Hamilton
by Ron Chernow
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All He Knew
by Helen Frost
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All Quiet on the Western Front
by Erich Maria Remarque
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All Quiet on the Western Front
by Erich Maria Remarque
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Amazing Mr. Doolittle
by Quentin Reynolds
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America 1933
by Michael Golay
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America in the Air War
by Edward Jablonski
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America the Beautiful/ A Man of Destiny
by the editors of Country Beautiful Magazine
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America's Christian History
by Gary DeMar
2nd edition from American Vision Press
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America's Longest War
by George C. Herring
2nd edition from McGraw-Hill
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America's National Battlefield Parks
by Joseph E. Stevens
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America's Providential History
by Mark Beliles & Stephen McDowell
from Providence Foundation
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$8.00 (6 in stock)
America: The First 350 Years - MP3 CD
by Steve Wilkins
from Covenant Publications
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$25.00
American Caesar
by William Manchester
from Little, Brown & Company
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American Children Through Their Books
by Sister Monica Kiefer
1970 printing from University of Pennsylvania Press
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$9.00 (1 in stock)
American Civil War
by Robert K. Krick
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American Civil War
by John Keegan
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$18.95
American Covenant
by Marshall Foster
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$7.50 (1 in stock)
American Dream
by Stephen K. McDowell & Mark Beliles
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American Fairy Tales
1st edition from Hyperion Books for Children
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American Heritage History of the American Revolution
by Bruce Lancaster
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American Heritage History of the Indian Wars
by Robert M. Utley, Wilcomb E. Washburn
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American History in Black & White
by David Barton
1st edition from WallBuilder Press
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American Indian Dances
by John L. Squires & Robert E. McLean
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American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House
by Jon Meacham
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American Nation
by John D. Hicks
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American Passage
by Vincent J. Cannato
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American President
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American Revolutionaries
by Milton Meltzer
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American Story
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American Story: The Revolutionaries
Time-Life: The American Story
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American Ulysses
by Ronald C. White
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Americanization of Benjamin Franklin
by Gordon S. Wood
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Amistad
by Helen Kromer
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Ancient America
Great Ages of Man
by Jonathan Norton Leonard
from Time-Life Books
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And There Was Light
by Jacques Lusseyran
Third Edition from New World Library
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$18.95
Andersonville
by MacKinlay Kantor
from World Publishing Company
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1955 Pulitzer Prize Winner
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Anne Bradstreet
by Heidi L. Nichols
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Biography for 10th-Adult
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Anne Bradstreet
Christian Renegades Series
by Doug Wilson
3rd edition from Canon Press
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Anne Bradstreet
by Faith Cook
from Evangelical Press
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Annotated African American Folktales
by Henry Louis Gates & Maria Tatar
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Annotated Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain
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Annotated Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant
by Ulysses S. Grant
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Annotated Uncle Tom's Cabin
by Harriet Beecher Stowe
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Realistic Fiction for 10th-Adult
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Annotated Uncle Tom's Cabin
by Harriet Beecher Stowe
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Apostle of Liberty
by Stephen McDowell
from Cumberland House
Biography for 9th-Adult
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Are We to Be a Nation?
by Richard B. Bernstein, with Kym S. Rice
from Harvard University Press
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Arguing about Slavery
by William Lee Miller
from Vintage Books
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$17.95
Army of the Potomac - 3 Volumes
by Bruce Catton
from Doubleday & Company
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Atlas of the North American Indian
by Carl Waldman
1st edition from Facts On File
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$9.50 (1 in stock)
Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
Dover Thrift Editions
by James Weldon Johnson
from Dover Publications
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Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Dover Thrift Editions
by Benjamin Franklin
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Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
World's Greatest Literature
by Benjamin Franklin
from Spencer Press
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Autobiography of Josiah Henson
by Josiah Henson
from Dover Publications
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B. Franklin, Printer
by David A. Adler
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Band of Brothers
by Stephen Ambrose, Foreword by Tom Hanks
25th anniversary from Simon and Schuster
for 10th-Adult
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$18.99
Basic History of the United States - Complete Set with Teacher's Guide
by Clarence B. Carson
from American Textbook Committee
American History Reference for 9th-12th grade
in Basic History of the United States (Location: HISCUR-US)
$104.55
Battle Cry of Freedom
Oxford History of the United States
by James M. McPherson
from Oxford University
for 11th-Adult
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$24.95
Battle from the Start
by Brian Steel Wills
from HarperCollins
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$15.00 (1 in stock)
Beards' New Basic History of the United States
by Charles A. Beard, Mary R. Beard, and William Beard
from Doubleday & Company
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Beechcraft: Pursuit of Perfection
by Edward H. Phillips
from Flying Books
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Beginning of the Republic
A Basic History of the United States Volume 2
by Clarence B. Carson
from American Textbook Committee
American History Reference for 9th-Adult
in Basic History of the United States (Location: HISCUR-US)
$17.00
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
Reprint from Signet Classics
Autobiography for 9th-Adult
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$5.95
Beyond Stateliest Marble
Leaders in Action Series
by Doug Wilson
from Cumberland House
Biography for
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
Bible and the Constitution
by Verna M. Hall and Rosalie J. Slater
1st edition from Foundation for American Christian Education
for Adult
in Principle Approach (Location: HSR-METPA)
Bible and the Constitution
by Verna M. Hall and Rosalie J. Slater
1st edition from Foundation for American Christian Education
for Adult
in Principle Approach (Location: HSR-METPA)
Big Burn
by Timothy Egan
from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Bitter Woods: The Battle of the Bulge
by John S. D. Eisenhower
1st edition from Da Capo Press
for 10th-Adult
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$3.00 (1 in stock)
Black & Tan
by Doug Wilson
from Canon Press
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$7.50 (1 in stock)
Black Boy (American Hunger)
by Richard Wright, Foreword by John Edgar Wideman, Afterworld by Malcolm Wright
Modern Classics 75th Anniversary from Harper Perennial
for Adult
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Black Odyssey
by Mary Cable
from Penguin Classics
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$7.00 (1 in stock)
Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin
by Timothy Snyder
from Basic Books
for Adult
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Blow Ye Winds Westerly
by Elizabeth Gemming
1st edition from Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.
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$9.00 (1 in stock)
Blue and the Gray
by Thomas B. Allen, Photography by Sam Abell
from National Geographic
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Bombs and Blessings
by Retha Hazel Eldridge
from Review and Herald Publishing Association
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$7.00 (1 in stock)
Bonhoeffer
by Eric Metaxas, foreword by Timothy J. Keller
Revised and Updated from Thomas Nelson Publishers
for 11th-Adult
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$24.99
Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life
Theologians on the Christian Life
by Stephen J. Nichols
from Crossway Books
for Adult
in Practical Christian Living (Location: XCL-PRAC)
Boston
from Crescent Books
for 4th-Adult
in Landmarks & Symbols of the United States (Location: HISV-LANUS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Boys in the Boat
by Daniel James Brown
Reprint from Penguin Putnam
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
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