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.

Did you find this review helpful?
226 Items found Print
Active Filters: 6th grade (Ages 11-12), Hardcover
10,000 Days of Thunder
by Philip Caputo
1st edition from Atheneum
for 5th-10th grade
in Vietnam War (1957-1975) (Location: HISA-20VIE)
Adventurous Life of Winston Churchill
by Geoffrey Bocca
from Julian Messner
for 5th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Air War Against Hitler's Germany
by Stephen W. Sears
from American Heritage Publishing Co.
for 6th-10th grade
in American Heritage Junior Library (Location: VIN-HIS)
All About Aviation
All About Books #51
by Robert D. Loomis
from Random House
for 3rd-6th grade
in All About Books (Location: VIN-ALL)
America During Four Wars
by Earl Schenck Miers & Felix Sutton
from Grosset & Dunlap
in American History Reference (Location: HISA-REF)
America in the 1900s and 1910s
Decades of American History
by Jim Callan
from Facts On File
for 5th-8th grade
in 20th Century America (Location: HISA-20)
$25.00 (1 in stock)
America in the 1930s
Decades of American History
by Jim Callan
from Facts On File
for 5th-8th grade
in 20th Century America (Location: HISA-20)
$35.00 (1 in stock)
America in the 1970s
from Facts On File
for 5th-8th grade
in 20th Century America (Location: HISA-20)
$25.00 (1 in stock)
America in the 1990s
by George Ochoa
from Facts On File
for 5th-8th grade
in 20th Century America (Location: HISA-20)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
America's First World War
Landmark #77
by Henry Castor
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
American Heroes of the 20th Century
Landmark Giant #14
by Harold & Doris Faber
from Random House
for 5th-8th grade
in Landmark Giants (Location: VIN-LAN)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Andrew Carnegie
from Kingston House
for 5th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Andrew Carnegie and the Age of Steel
Landmark #80
by Katherine B. Shippen
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
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.
for 6th-10th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Archie's War
by Marcia Williams
from Candlewick Press
for 5th-7th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
Battle for Iwo Jima
Landmark #118
by Robert Leckie
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in Vintage & Collectible (Location: VIN-COL)
Battle for the Atlantic
Landmark #87
by Jay Williams
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Battle of Britain
World Landmark #10
by Quentin Reynolds
from Random House
for 5th-8th grade
in World Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAN)
Battle of the Bulge
Landmark #114
by John Toland
from Random House
for 5th-8th grade
in Vintage & Collectible (Location: VIN-COL)
Battle of the Bulge
by Stephen W. Sears
from American Heritage Publishing Co.
for 3rd-8th grade
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
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Behave Yourself, Bethany Brant
by Patricia Beatty
from William Morrow & Company
for 3rd-6th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Betsy and Joe
by Maud Hart Lovelace, illustrated by Vera Neville
15th Printing from Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.
for 6th-9th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$45.00 (1 in stock)
Big Annie of Calumet
by Jerry Stanley
1st edition
for 4th-7th grade
in Industrialization & Organized Labor (Location: HISA-19IND)
$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
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Bomb
by Steve Sheinkin
First Edition from Flash Point
for 5th-9th grade
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)
Boys in the Boat adapted for Young Readers
by Daniel James Brown, adapted by Gregory Mone
from Penguin Putnam
for 6th-9th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$17.99
Bud, Not Buddy
by Christopher Paul Curtis
from Delacorte Press
Realistic Fiction for 4th-6th grade
2000 Newbery Medal winner
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$4.00 (2 in stock)
Captain Edward L. Beach: Around the World Under Water
by Beril Becker
from Kingston House
for 6th-10th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Carrie's War
by Nina Bawden
from J.B. Lippincott Co.
for 3rd-6th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Carrier War in the Pacific
by Stephen W. Sears
from American Heritage Publishing Co.
for 4th-8th grade
in American Heritage Junior Library (Location: VIN-HIS)
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
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$35.00 (1 in stock)
Charles A. Lindbergh
by James Cross Giblin
from Clarion Books
Biography for 5th-8th grade
1998 NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$7.00 (2 in stock)
Charles Lindbergh
A Discovery Book
by David R. Collins
from Garrard Publishing Company
for 4th-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Child Star
by Lydia Weaver
from Viking Press
for 4th-7th grade
in Great Depression (1929-1939) (Location: HISA-20GD)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Christmas After All
Dear America
by Kathryn Lasky
from Scholastic Inc.
for 4th-6th grade
in Dear America Books (Location: SER-DEAR)
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)
Coal Miner's Bride
Dear America
by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
from Scholastic Inc.
Fictional historical journal for 3rd-6th grade
in Dear America Books (Location: SER-DEAR)
Cold War Correspondent
by Nathan Hale
from Amulet Books
for 2nd-6th grade
in Comic Books & Graphic Novels (Location: FIC-COMIC)
$14.99
Combat Nurses of World War II
Landmark #116
by Wyatt Blassingame
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Come on Seabiscuit
by Ralph Moody
from Houghton Mifflin
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Commandos of World War II
World Landmark #61
by Hodding Carter
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in World Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAN)
Commandos of World War II
World Landmark #61
by Hodding Carter
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in World War II (1939-1945) (Location: HISA-20WW2)
Deep Treasure
by Charles Blackford, illustrated by Alexander Key
1st edition from John C. Winston
Historical fiction for 6th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Desert Harvest
Land of the Free Series
by Vanya Oakes, illustrated by Isami Kashiwagi
1st edition from John C. Winston
Historical fiction for 6th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Desert War in North Africa
by Stephen W. Sears
from Harper & Row
for 4th-8th grade
in Horizon Caravel Books (Location: VIN-HOR)
DK Eyewitness: World War I
DK Eyewitness Series
by Simon Adams
from DK Publishing
History Reference for 4th-8th grade
in World War I (1914-1919) (Location: HISA-20WW1)
Door to the North
Land of the Free Series
by Elizabeth Coatsworth, illustrated by Frederick T. Chapman
1st edition from John C. Winston
Historical fiction for 6th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Dreams in the Golden Country
Dear America
by Kathryn Lasky
from Scholastic Inc.
for 4th-6th grade
in Dear America Books (Location: SER-DEAR)
$6.00 (2 in stock)
Early Sunday Morning
Dear America
by Barry Denenberg
from Scholastic Inc.
Fictional historical journal for 3rd-6th grade
in Dear America Books (Location: SER-DEAR)
Elephant in the Garden
by Michael Morpurgo
from Feiwel & Friends
for 5th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Enchanted Schoolhouse
by Ruth Sawyer
for 3rd-6th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
Escape from Corregidor
by Edward D. Whitcomb
from Regnery Publishing, Inc.
for 6th-12th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Escape or Die
by Ina R. Friedman
from Addison Wesley
for 6th-8th grade
in Holocaust (Location: HISW-20WW2H)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Faraway Island
by Annika Thor
from Delacorte Press
for 5th-7th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
First World War
Usborne Young Reading: Series Three
by Conrad Mason
from Usborne
for 3rd-6th grade
in World War I (1914-1919) (Location: HISA-20WW1)
Flight: A Panorama of Aviation
by Melvin B. Zisfein; illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker
from Pantheon Books
for 4th-6th grade
in Aviation History (Location: HISV-AVIA)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Flying Aces of World War I
World Landmark #60
by Gene Gurney
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in World Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAN)
Flying Tigers
Landmark #105
by John Toland
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in Vintage & Collectible (Location: VIN-COL)
Footprints of the Dragon
Land of the Free Series
by Vanya Oakes, illustrated by Tyrus Wong
1st edition from John C. Winston
Historical fiction for 6th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Forging Freedom
by Hudson Talbott
from Putnam Juvenile
for 3rd-6th grade
in Holocaust (Location: HISW-20WW2H)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Fortunate Grandchild
by Miss Read
1st US Edition
for 4th-6th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
Forward March to Freedom
by Barbara Kay Greenleaf
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 4th-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
From Ballots to Breadlines
Young Oxford History of Women in the United States Volume 8
by Sarah Jane Deutsch
from Oxford University
for 6th-8th grade
in 20th Century America (Location: HISA-20)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
From Casablanca to Berlin
Landmark #112
by Bruce Bliven, Jr.
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
From Pearl Harbor to Okinawa
Landmark #94
by Bruce Bliven
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Golden Book History of the United States Volume 10
by Earl Schenck Miers
from Golden Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Golden Book History of the United States Volume 8
by Earl Schenck Miers
from Golden Press
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Golden Book History of the United States Volume 9
by Earl Schenck Miers
from Golden Press
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Good Fight
by Stephen Ambrose
from Atheneum
WWII Historical Reference for 4th-9th grade
in World War II (1939-1945) (Location: HISA-20WW2)
$27.99
Great American Fighter Pilots of World War II
Landmark #96
by Robert D. Loomis
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in Vintage & Collectible (Location: VIN-COL)
Great Days of the Circus
by Freeman Hubbard
from Harper & Row
for 5th-8th grade
in American Heritage Junior Library (Location: VIN-HIS)
Guadalcanal Diary
Landmark #55
by Richard Tregaskis
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in Vintage & Collectible (Location: VIN-COL)
Hear My Sorrow
by Deborah Hopkinson
from Scholastic Inc.
for 3rd-6th grade
in Dear America Books (Location: SER-DEAR)
History of the Atomic Bomb
by Michael Blow
from American Heritage Publishing Co.
for 6th-10th grade
in American Heritage Junior Library (Location: VIN-HIS)
Hitler's Daughter
by Jackie French
from HarperCollins
for 4th-7th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Homesick: My Own Story
by Jean Fritz
from Penguin Putnam
for 4th-8th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
How and Why Wonder Book of World War II
by Felix Sutton, illustrated by Darrell Sweet
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 3rd-6th grade
in How and Why Wonder Books (Location: VIN-H&W)
How I Became an American
by Karin Gundisch
from Cricket Books
for 3rd-6th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Hull-Down for Action
by Armstrong Sperry
from Doubleday & Company
for 5th-9th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
I Heard of a River
Land of the Free Series
by Elsie Singmaster, illustrated by Henry C. Pitz
1st edition from John C. Winston
Historical fiction for 6th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Illustrated History of the First World War
by John Keegan
1st edition from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 5th-12th grade
in World War I (1914-1919) (Location: HISA-20WW1)
Immigrants to America
History of America
by Linda Thompson
from Rourke Publishing
for 3rd-6th grade
in Immigration & Emigration (Location: HISA-20IM)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Irish Americans
by James Mullin
from Houghton Mifflin
for 5th-9th grade
in Immigration & Emigration (Location: HISA-20IM)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
John F. Kennedy
A Discovery Book
by Charles P. Graves
from Garrard Publishing Company
for 4th-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
John F. Kennedy and PT-109
Landmark #99
by Richard Tregaskis
from Random House
for 5th-8th grade
in American Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAND)
Journey to the New World
Dear America
by Kathryn, Lasky
from Scholastic Inc.
Fictional historical journal for 3rd-6th Grade
in Dear America Books (Location: SER-DEAR)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Labor on the March
by Joseph L. Gardner
from American Heritage Publishing Co.
for 6th-10th grade
in American Heritage Junior Library (Location: VIN-HIS)
Last Fort
Land of the Free Series
by Elizabeth Coatsworth, illustrated by Edward Shenton
1st edition from John C. Winston
Historical fiction for 6th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Lawrence of Arabia
World Landmark #52
by Alistair MacLean
from Random House
for 5th-8th grade
in World Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAN)
Liberty
by Lynn Curlee
from Atheneum
for 4th-6th grade
in Landmarks & Symbols of the United States (Location: HISV-LANUS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Lindbergh
Classic Starts
by Torben Kuhlmann, Translated by David Henry Wilson
from NorthSouth
for 2nd-6th grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$19.95 $10.00 (1 in stock)
Lindbergh Alone
by Brendan Gill
from Harcourt, Brace & World
for 4th-9th grade
in Clearance: History & Geography (Location: ZCLE-HIS)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Little Fishes
from Houghton Mifflin
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Luba
by Luba Tryszynska-Frederick
from Tricycle Press
for 4th-6th grade
in Holocaust (Location: HISW-20WW2H)
Medical Corps Heroes of World War II
Landmark #120
by Wyatt Blassingame
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Midway: Battle for the Pacific
Landmark #119
by Edmund Castillo
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
My Secret Camera
by Mendel Grossman
from Harcourt
for 4th-8th grade
in Holocaust (Location: HISW-20WW2H)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
My Secret War
Dear America
by Mary Pope Osborne
First Edition from Scholastic Inc.
Fictional historical journal for 3rd-6th grade
in Dear America Books (Location: SER-DEAR)
Nickel's Worth of Skim Milk
by Robert J. Hastings, illustrated by Steve Kerr
from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
for 6th-12th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
123