Chronological History

Sometimes we speak of world history as though it belongs to people. It doesn't—it belongs to God, and though people play prominently within the historical narrative, it always remains under God's auspices and control. The problem with losing the right perspective isn't that we'll get the facts wrong, it's that we'll fail to understand what they mean, what the purpose of past events is, and what we can look forward to.

Human history began all at once in the same place: the Garden of Eden, where God made Adam and Eve as the crown of all Creation. He told them to fill the earth and take dominion of it, and He also told them not to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. They ate the fruit anyway, and mankind was removed from paradise and introduced to tension, pain, and resistance.

The story of the world is in many ways simply the story of adversity. For the enemies of God, it's adversity in the form of the failure and futility of purely human endeavor; for God's people, it's the story of fighting for the truth against secular philosophies, fighting for holiness despite the pervasiveness of sin, and fighting for the Gospel in the face of persecution and death.

Jesus Christ is our only hope. He is the Prince of Peace, the defeater of Death, and the King of the Universe, the saver of souls and the punisher of wickedness. His kingdom is the restoration and glorious fulfillment of the paradise from which Adam and Eve were removed, and we work, wait, hope and pray for the quick fulfillment of His will in all things.

This is our framework for history. While it's important to study things like the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, and the ancient Near East, it's only important when investigated through the lens of God's ultimate sovereignty and plan. The story of mankind is the story of redemption, and only when we analyze battles, kings, treaties, and catastrophes from God's perspective can we truly make sense of them.

Otherwise, it's all fairly irrelevant and useless. Sure, there's Napoleon's dictum that those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it, but a quick survey of the past will show that each successive generation does repeat the sins of their fathers, and that without Christ's real physical life on Earth as a centering point, there's no real cause for optimism or hope of any kind.

Christ's love not only makes the trajectory of history cause for hope; it reveals the truly great moments of the past, events that to the secular eye seem insignificant or even pernicious. We're speaking of the progress of the true Church, of course, and of each soul that God calls and makes His own through the agency of His Holy Spirit. These are the milestones we look for and celebrate.

We carry a lot of world history products. Because it's the story of God's work in the world and our human responses, we believe it's important to know and understand. Not everything we carry is Christian; there are plenty of secular resources here. We encourage you to use whichever ones work best for your situation, but that you do so with a view to understanding the will and work of the One who made history in the first place.

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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1066: The Year of the Conquest
by David Howarth
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11 Days in December
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1776
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Great Ages of Man
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Great Ages of Man
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Air Forces of the World
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Pivotal Moments in American History
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America 1933
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American Civil War
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American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House
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An Autobiography or The Story of My Experiments with Truth
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Great Ages of Man
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Band of Brothers
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Short Oxford History of the Modern World
by Robert Gildea
3rd edition from Oxford University
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Oxford History of the United States
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Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin
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Boys of Summer
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Brave Men
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Combat Aircraft Library
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The Revolution Trilogy #1 of 3
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Carolingian Chronicles
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Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War
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Christopher Columbus and His Legacy
Opposing Viewpoints Series
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Christopher Columbus: His Story and His Journals
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Churchill and Empire
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Churchill: Walking with Destiny
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Citizen Soldiers
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Civil War: A History
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Civil War: A Narrative - 3 Volume Set
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Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance
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Colonial Period: 1607-1750
American History by Era Volume 2
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Columbus and Cortez, Conquerors for Christ
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Confederate War
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Conquerors
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Coolidge
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Cradle of Civilization
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Crusades
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1992 Printing from Tan Books
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Crusades
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Daily Life in Johnson's London
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Dead and Those About to Die
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Defining Moment
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Devil in Massachusetts
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Discoverers
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Distant Mirror
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Easy Company Soldier
by Sgt. Don Malarkey
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Egyptian Religion
by Sir Wallis Budge
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Einstein's Clocks, Poincare's Maps
by Peter Galison
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Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men
by Jeffrey Rogers Hummel
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Embattled Rebel
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Emergence of Latin America in the Nineteenth Century
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Empire Rising
by Thomas Kelly
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England's Glorious Revolution 1688-1689
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FDR
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Fighting for Liberty and Virtue
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First Great Civilizations
by Jacquetta Hawkes
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Flags of Our Fathers
by James Bradley & Ron Powers
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Flyboys
by James Bradley
2nd edition from Back Bay Books
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Folk Arts and Crafts of New England
by Priscilla Sawyer Lord & Daniel J. Foley
Updated from Chilton Book Company
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Forever Free
by Eric Foner, illustrations edited with commentary by Joshua Brown
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Founding Brothers
by Joseph J. Ellis
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Freighters and Pilgrims
Knowledge Keepers Home Library Series 1865
by Charles E. Young and Sarah Raymond Herndon
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Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson
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From Distant Days
by Benjamin R. Foster
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General Lee: Southern Commander
Knowledge Keepers Home Library Series 1861
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Geoffrey Chaucer of England
by Marchette Chute
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Gettysburg: The Last Invasion
by Allen C. Guelzo
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Gettysburg: The Last Invasion
by Allen C. Guelzo
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Gilded Age: A History in Documents
by Janette Thomas Greenwood
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Girl in the Picture
by Denise Chong
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Glory and the Dream - Volume 1
by William Manchester
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Glory and the Dream - Volume 2
by William Manchester
from Little, Brown & Company
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Glory Road
by Bruce Catton
from Doubleday & Company
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God's Battalions
by Rodney Stark
Reprint from HarperOne
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$17.99
Grant Moves South
by Bruce Catton
from Back Bay Books
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