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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516 Items found Print
Active Filters: 9th grade (Ages 14-15), Hardcover
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)
10,000 Days of Thunder
by Philip Caputo
1st edition from Atheneum
for 5th-10th grade
in Vietnam War (1957-1975) (Location: HISA-20VIE)
290
by Scott O'Dell
from Houghton Mifflin
for 4th-9th grade
Hans Christian Andersen Award
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
Abraham Lincoln in Peace and War
by Earl Schenck Miers
from American Heritage Publishing Co.
for 6th-10th grade
in American Heritage Junior Library (Location: VIN-HIS)
Abraham Lincoln's World (pictorial hardcover)
by Genevieve Foster
from Charles Scribner's Sons
Historical Non-fiction for 7th-10th grade
1945 Newbery Honor Book
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Admiral David Glasgow Farragut
by Chester G. Hearn
from US Naval Institute Press
for 9th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
Admiral of the Ocean Sea
by Samuel E. Morison
from Atlantic Monthly Press
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Adventures in the Wilderness
by Rutherford Hayes Platt
from Troll Associates
for 6th-10th grade
in American Heritage Junior Library (Location: VIN-HIS)
Adventures of Buffalo Bill
by Col. William F. Cody
from Harper & Brothers
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Adventures of Captain Bonneville
by Washington Irving, illustrated by Robert Reynolds
Klickitat from Binford & Mort Publishing
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Mark Twain
from Reader's Digest
Realistic Fiction for 7th-Adult
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Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Sterling Classics
by Mark Twain, illustrated by Scott McKowen
from Sterling Publishing Co.
for 6th-10th grade
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$14.95
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Children's Classics
by Mark Twain, Illustrated by Peter Fiore
from Dilithium Press, Ltd.
for 5th-10th grade
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
Adventures of Tom Sawyer
by Mark Twain
from International Collectors Library
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Adventures of Tom Sawyer
by Mark Twain, illustrated by Norman Rockwell
from Heritage Press
Realistic Fiction for 6th-10th grade
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Adventures of Tom Sawyer
by Mark Twain, illustrated by Worth Brehm
from Harper & Brothers
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Age of Exploration
Great Ages of Man
by John R. Hale
from Time-Life Books
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Air Forces of the World
by Sue Butterworth, editor
from Chartwell Books
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in Aviation History (Location: HISV-AVIA)
$18.00 (1 in stock)
Air War Against Hitler's Germany
by Stephen W. Sears
from American Heritage Publishing Co.
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Alaska Gold Rush
Landmark #92
by May McNeer
from Random House
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Album of Memories
by Tom Brokaw
from Random House
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$6.50 (1 in stock)
Album of the Civil War
by William Loren Katz
from Franklin Watts
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$4.50 (1 in stock)
Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr
Landmark #85
by Russel & Anna Crouse
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
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America and Its People
by Laureat Bernard,Ralph Brande, Don Sharkey
from W. H. Sadlier
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in Vintage Readers & Textbooks (Location: VIN-READ)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
America During Four Wars
by Earl Schenck Miers & Felix Sutton
from Grosset & Dunlap
in American History Reference (Location: HISA-REF)
America Grows Up
A History for Peter #2
by Gerald W. Johnson, illustrated by Leonard Everett Fisher
from William Morrow & Company
for 7th-12th grade
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America in the Air War
by Edward Jablonski
from Time-Life Books
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in Aviation History (Location: HISV-AVIA)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
America's Fascinating Indian Heritage
by James A. Maxwell
from Reader's Digest
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
America's First World War
Landmark #77
by Henry Castor
from Random House
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in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
American Fairy Tales
1st edition from Hyperion Books for Children
for 3rd-Adult
American Heritage History of the American Revolution
by Bruce Lancaster
from American Heritage Publishing Co.
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
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 Revolution
Landmark #83
by Bruce Bliven, Jr.
from Random House
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American Story
from Curtis Publishing Co.
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Americans Before Columbus
by Elizabeth Baity, illustrated by C.B. Falls
from Viking Press
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1952 Newbery Honor Book
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$14.00 (1 in stock)
Ancient America
Great Ages of Man
by Jonathan Norton Leonard
from Time-Life Books
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Andersonville
by MacKinlay Kantor
from World Publishing Company
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1955 Pulitzer Prize Winner
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Andrew Carnegie and the Age of Steel
Landmark #80
by Katherine B. Shippen
from Random House
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Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
by Anne Frank, translated by B. M. Mooyaart-Doubleday with an introduction by Eleanor Roosevelt
Book Club Edition from Nelson Doubleday, Inc.
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$14.00 (1 in stock)
Annotated African American Folktales
by Henry Louis Gates & Maria Tatar
from W. W. Norton and Co.
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Annotated Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain
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Apostle of Liberty
by Stephen McDowell
from Cumberland House
Biography for 9th-Adult
in Leaders in Action (Location: BIO-LIA)
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
World's Greatest Literature
by Benjamin Franklin
from Spencer Press
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
B. Franklin, Printer
by David A. Adler
from Holiday House
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$8.00 (2 in stock)
Balboa: Swordsman and Conquistador
World Landmark #25
by Felix Riesenberg, Jr.
from Random House
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Battle for Iwo Jima
Landmark #118
by Robert Leckie
from Random House
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Battle for the Atlantic
Landmark #87
by Jay Williams
from Random House
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Battle from the Start
by Brian Steel Wills
from HarperCollins
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$15.00 (1 in stock)
Battle of Gettysburg
by Bruce Catton
from Troll Associates
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in American Heritage Junior Library (Location: VIN-HIS)
Beckoning Hills
Land of the Free Series
by Joseph H. Gage, illustrated by Floyd Torbert
1st edition from John C. Winston
Historical fiction for 6th-10th grade
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Ben Snipes, Northwest Cattle King
by Roscoe Sheller
Third Edition from Binford & Mort Publishing
for 7th-Adult
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Betsy and Joe
by Maud Hart Lovelace, illustrated by Vera Neville
15th Printing from Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.
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$45.00 (1 in stock)
Beyond Stateliest Marble
Leaders in Action Series
by Doug Wilson
from Cumberland House
Biography for
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
Black Falcon
by Armstrong Sperry
from John C. Winston
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$18.00 (1 in stock)
Black Man in America
from Franklin Watts
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$7.50 (1 in stock)
Blow Ye Winds Westerly
by Elizabeth Gemming
1st edition from Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.
for 9th-Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Blowing-Wand
Land of the Free Series
by Elsie Reif Ziegler, illustrated by Jacob Landau
1st edition from John C. Winston
Historical fiction for 6th-10th grade
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Bomb
by Steve Sheinkin
First Edition from Flash Point
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2013 Newbery Honor Book, 2013 Robert F. Sibert Medal winner
in World War II (1939-1945) (Location: HISA-20WW2)
$24.99 $14.00 (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)
Book of Famous Explorers
Young Folks Library
by Edwin Erle Sparks, editor
from Auxiliary Educational League
for 3rd-9th grade
in Vintage Anthology Collections (Location: VIN-ANTH)
Boston
from Crescent Books
for 4th-Adult
in Landmarks & Symbols of the United States (Location: HISV-LANUS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Boy with a Pack
by Stephen W. Meader, illustrated by Edward Shenton
from Harcourt, Brace & Company
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Boys in the Boat
by Daniel James Brown
from Viking Press
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Boys in the Boat adapted for Young Readers
by Daniel James Brown, adapted by Gregory Mone
from Penguin Putnam
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in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$17.99
Bret Harte: Stories of the Early West
by Bret Harte
from Platt and Munk Publishers
for 8th-Adult
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Bridle for Pegasus
by Katherine B. Shippen, illustrated by C. B. Falls
from Viking Press
for 7th-10th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Buffalo Bill's Life Story
by William F. Cody, Illustrated by N.C. Wyeth
1966 printing from Holt, Rinehart and Winston
for 6th-Adult
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Buffalo Coat
by Carol Ryrie Brink
for 9th-Adult
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
by Dee Brown
from Holt McDougal
for 9th-Adult
in Native Americans (Location: HISA-19NAT)
$20.00
Calico Captive
by Elizabeth Speare
from Houghton Mifflin
for 6th-9th grade
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California Gold Rush
by Ralph K. Andrist
from Troll Associates
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in American Heritage Junior Library (Location: VIN-HIS)
Call of Duty
Leaders in Action Series
by Steve Wilkins
from Cumberland House
Biography for 9th-Adult
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$16.95 $10.00 (1 in stock)
Captain Cook
by Alistair MacLean
from Doubleday & Company
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Captain Cortés Conquers Mexico
World Landmark #45
by William Johnson
from Random House
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Captain Edward L. Beach: Around the World Under Water
by Beril Becker
from Kingston House
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Carry a Big Stick
Leaders in Action Series
by George Grant
from Cumberland House
Biography for 9th-Adult
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
by Jean Lee Latham, illustrated by John O'Hara Cosgrave II
from Houghton Mifflin
Biography for 5th-9th grade
1956 Newbery Medal winner
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Carver: A Life in Poems
by Marilyn Nelson
from Boyds Mill Press
for 7th-11th grade
2002 Newbery Honor Book, Coretta Scott King Honor Award
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$16.95
Character for Life
by Don Hawkinson
for 7th-12th grade
in America's Christian Heritage (Location: HISA-CH)
$18.00 (1 in stock)
Chariot in the Sky
Land of the Free Series
by Arna Bontemps, illustrated by Cyrus Le Roy Baldridge
1st edition from John C. Winston
Historical fiction for 6th-10th grade
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$35.00 (1 in stock)
Cheer the Lonesome Traveller
by Leslie Alexander Lacy, illustrated by James Barkley
from Dial Press
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Chickamauga
by Horace Porter
from Konecky & Konecky
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Chief Joseph Country
by Bill Gulick
from Caxton Press
for 8th-Adult
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Christian Life and Character of the Civil United States
by Benjamin F. Morris
from American Vision Press
for 9th-Adult
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$35.00 (1 in stock)
Christopher Columbus
by Samuel Eliot Morison
from Dorset Press
for 8th-11th grade
in Oversized History Books (Location: HISW-OVER)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Civil War Battles
by Curt Johnson
1st edition from Crescent Books
for 7th-12th grade
in Oversized History Books (Location: HISW-OVER)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Civil War: 1861-1865
by David E. Roth
from Zigzag
for 9th-Adult
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$15.00 (1 in stock)
Climb a Lofty Ladder
by Marion & Walter Havighurst, illustrated by Jill Elgin
1st edition from John C. Winston
Historical fiction for 6th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Clipper Ships and Captains
by Jane D. Lyon
from Troll Associates
for 6th-10th grade
in American Heritage Junior Library (Location: VIN-HIS)
Codfish Musket
by Agnes Hewes, illustrated by Armstrong Sperry
from Doubleday, Doran & Company Inc.
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1937 Newbery Honor Book
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$45.00 (1 in stock)
Colonial American Home Life
by John F. Warner
from Franklin Watts
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in Colonial America (1690-1765) (Location: HISA-17COL)
$6.00 (2 in stock)
Colonial Craftsmen and the Beginnings of American Industry
by Edwin Tunis
from World Publishing Company
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Colonial Living
by Edwin Tunis
from World Publishing Company
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Combat Nurses of World War II
Landmark #116
by Wyatt Blassingame
from Random House
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Come By Here
by Olivia Coolidge
from Houghton Mifflin
Novel for 6th-9th grade
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Coming of the Mormons
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by Jim Kjelgaard
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Commandos of World War II
World Landmark #61
by Hodding Carter
from Random House
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Commandos of World War II
World Landmark #61
by Hodding Carter
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Constitution of the United States of America
by Founding Fathers
from Applewood Books
Primary Source Documents for 9th-Adult
in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
$9.95
Copper Kings of Montana
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by Marian T. Place
from Random House
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