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20th Century America

The 20th was America's century. The United States in particular was able to play the role of industrial leader, international hero, aloof arbiter, Good Samaritan, and cultural giant. Of course, there were plenty of detractors, and snobs who didn't like the thought of an upstart nation of plebs gaining so much influence and power so quickly, but for the most part America and Americans were heralded as everyone's friend.

It was also the century of postmodernism, Darwinian indoctrination, modern "art", legalized abortion, rampant sexual license, etc., most of these finding their origin or substantial support in the U.S.A. American troops may have stopped the spread of Communism in South Korea and taken out the Third Reich, but they weren't able to stop the spread of anti-Christian sentiment or the deaths of more Christian martyrs than in all the previous centuries combined.

The British historian Paul Johnson says the Modern Era was born on March 29, 1919, when photographs of a solar eclipse proved Albert Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity. It's always a dangerous business inaugurating or ending historical periods with specific dates, but this much is clear—with the universal acceptance of Einstein's theory which followed, the moral and philosophical relativism with which the West had been experimenting for 300 years or so was finally codified as the standard approach to life, the universe and everything.

Einstein first published his theory in 1905. Shortly thereafter, the world began to fall apart. World War I was more than just a war—it was the conflict of outmoded nationalistic ideals with the new super-efficient war machines produced by the Industrial Revolution and technological progress. The Great Depression affected nations all over the world, the Lost Generation abandoned morality and surrendered to existential angst, and World War II stripped away the last illusions of innocence.

After that, there was no going back. Everything was questioned, everything was assumed to be in flux, there were no absolutes, no stationary standards, just the present and confusion and ambiguity. Existentialism told people to create their own meaning through self-actualization; postmodernism said there was no meaning, or that all meaning was relative and ultimately meaningless, merely a social construct designed to control people.

This is where human-centered thinking will ultimately get you, of course.When God is dismissed, hope is impossible, and the only response is either complete despair (existentialism) or complete nonsense (postmodernism). Add in the godless sexual preoccupations of Freudian theory, the culmination of Darwinian evolutionary naturalism, and the Enlightenment-inspired trust in human goodness and progress, and you've got a chaotic world.

Which is what we have now. After the Sexual Revolution, the secularization of public dialogue, and the watering-down of the Christian Gospel in so many churches, we're left with moral, religious and philosophical wreckage of the worst kind. Fortunately, we also have the true Gospel, which tells us that Christ has always and will always be the answer to evil and the only path to Truth and Salvation.

Despite the high death toll among Christians in the 20th century, the last 100 years also saw the most concerted missionary efforts yet undertaken, spanning every continent and nearly every people group. The Bible was translated into hundreds of languages (there are still thousands to go), the poor were cared for, and the Good News of the resurrected Lord was taken everywhere men and women could go.

Even the darkest centuries (and the 20th was certainly among them) aren't sufficient to overcome the work of Yahweh Almighty among His people and in the created world. Man has always rebelled; he will continue to do so. But God's faithful children will continue to spread His message and love and witness through the power of the Holy Spirit until Christ comes again and history is fulfilled in all the glory and majesty of the triumphant Godhead.

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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11 Days in December
by Stanley Weintraub
from New American Library
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Air Forces of the World
by Sue Butterworth, editor
from Chartwell Books
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$18.00 (1 in stock)
Album of Memories
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All He Knew
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All Quiet on the Western Front
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War/Realistic Fiction for 10th-Adult
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All Quiet on the Western Front
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Book Club (BCE/BOMC) from Ballantine Books
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Amazing Mr. Doolittle
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America 1933
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America in the Air War
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
America the Beautiful/ A Man of Destiny
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America's Longest War
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American Caesar
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American Passage
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And There Was Light
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Band of Brothers
by Stephen Ambrose, Foreword by Tom Hanks
25th anniversary from Simon and Schuster
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Beechcraft: Pursuit of Perfection
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Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin
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Bombs and Blessings
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from Review and Herald Publishing Association
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Bonhoeffer
by Eric Metaxas, foreword by Timothy J. Keller
Revised and Updated from Thomas Nelson Publishers
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$24.99
Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life
Theologians on the Christian Life
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Boys in the Boat
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Boys in the Boat
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Boys of Summer
by Roger Kahn
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Boys' Crusade
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Brave Men
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Brave Men
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Bridge to the Sun
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Bridge Too Far
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British and European Combat Aircraft
Combat Aircraft Library
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
Caine Mutiny
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1952 Pulitzer Prize Winner
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Call to Conscience
by Martin Luther King, Jr., Edited by Clayborne Carson and Kris Shepard
from Grand Central Publishing
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$16.00
Captured!
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War
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Catch-22
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50th Anniversary Edition from Simon and Schuster
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$18.99
Cheer the Lonesome Traveller
by Leslie Alexander Lacy, illustrated by James Barkley
from Dial Press
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Churchill
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Churchill: Walking with Destiny
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Citizen Soldiers
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from Simon and Schuster
Historical Non-Fiction for 10th-Adult
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$20.99
Comes the Comrade!
by Alexandra Orme, translated from the Polish by M.A. Michael and L. Meyer
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Complete Maus
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Complete Maus
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Coolidge
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Cornelius Ryan World War II Trilogy
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Count Luckner, the Sea Devil
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D-Day: Operation Overlord
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Day Pearl Harbor was Bombed
by George Sullivan
from Scholastic Inc.
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Dead and Those About to Die
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Death Valley Scotty
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Defeating the Totalitarian Lie
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Defining Moment
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Design Line: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
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Destroyers for Great Britain
by Arnold Hague
Revised & Expanded from Naval Institute Press
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$9.00 (1 in stock)
Diary of a Young Girl
by Anne Frank
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Diary of a Young Girl
by Anne Frank
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Diary of a Young Girl
by Anne Frank
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Biography for 7th-Adult
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Eagle Squadrons
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Easy Company Soldier
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Empire Rising
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Everything Sad Is Untrue
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Evidence Not Seen
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Fabulous Opal Whiteley
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Faithful Spy
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Falcons of France
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Fallen Angels
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FDR
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Fighting Jets
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Fighting the Flying Circus
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1965 Edition from Doubleday & Company
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Flags of Our Fathers
by James Bradley & Ron Powers
from Bantam Books
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Flyboys
by James Bradley
2nd edition from Back Bay Books
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in World War II (1939-1945) (Location: HISA-20WW2)
Forgotten Ellis Island
by Lorie Conway
from Collins
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$24.00 (2 in stock)
From Flappers to Flivvers...
from Reminisce Books
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George Washington Carver: The Man Who Overcame
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Girl in the Picture
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from Charles Scribner's Sons
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Glory and the Dream - Volume 1
by William Manchester
from Little, Brown & Company
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Glory and the Dream - Volume 2
by William Manchester
from Little, Brown & Company
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God's Samurai
by Gordon Prange, with Donald Goldstein & Katherine Dillon
from Potomoc Books
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$21.95
Good Shepherd
by C.S. Forester
from Little, Brown & Company
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Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck
from Penguin Classics
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Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck, illustrated by James Hays
from Reader's Digest
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Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck
3rd printing from Viking Press
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$24.00 (1 in stock)
Great Crash: 1929
by John Kenneth Galbraith
from Mariner Books
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$16.99
Great Escape
by Paul Brickhill
Reissue from W. W. Norton and Co.
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$16.95
Great Waters
by Creston Donald Ketchum
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$7.00 (1 in stock)
Greatest Generation
by Tom Brokaw
1st edition from Random House
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$5.00 (2 in stock)
Greatest Generation Speaks
by Tom Brokaw
1st edition from Random House
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Growing Up with Dick and Jane
by Carole Kismaric & Marvin Heiferman
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in Clearance: History & Geography (Location: ZCLE-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Growth of America
A Basic History of the United States Volume 4
by Clarence B. Carson
from American Textbook Committee
American History Reference for 9th-Adult
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$19.00
Guadalcanal Diary
by Richard Tregaskis
Modern library pbk. ed from Modern Library
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Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer
from Sun Dial Press
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$17.00
Guns of August
by Barbara W. Tuchman
from Ballantine Books
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Guns of August
by Barbara W. Tuchman
from Ballantine Books
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$8.99
Here Is Your War
by Ernie Pyle; illustrated by Carol Johnson
1943 Printing from World Publishing Company
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Heyday
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from Weidenfeld & Nicolson
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
High Barbaree
by Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall
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Hiroshima
by John Hersey
from Vintage Classics
Historical Non-Fiction for 9th-Adult
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History of Aviation
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Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War
by Joseph Loconte
from Tyndale House
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$18.99
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