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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1421: The Year China Discovered America
by Gavin Menzies
1st edition from William Morrow & Company
for Adult
in Clearance: History & Geography (Location: ZCLE-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
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)
1944: FDR and the Year That Changed History
by Jay Winik
from Simon and Schuster
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Age of Religious Wars
by Richard S. Dunn
2nd edition from W. W. Norton and Co.
for 11th-Adult
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Age of Voltaire
Story of Civilization IX
by Will & Ariel Durant
from Simon and Schuster
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$15.00 (1 in stock)
Air Forces of the World
by Sue Butterworth, editor
from Chartwell Books
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$18.00 (1 in stock)
Alexander Hamilton
by Ron Chernow
from Penguin Random House
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$8.00 (2 in stock)
Alexander the Great, Killer of Men
by David J. Lonsdale
from Carroll & Graf Publishers
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$5.00 (2 in stock)
Alice
by Stacey A. Cordery
from Viking Press
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$7.50 (1 in stock)
All Shook Up
Pivotal Moments in American History
by Glenn C. Altschuler
from Oxford University
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
America's Longest War
by George C. Herring
2nd edition from McGraw-Hill
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
American Passage
by Vincent J. Cannato
from Harper Perennial
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Americanization of Benjamin Franklin
by Gordon S. Wood
from Penguin Books
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$6.40 (1 in stock)
An Autobiography or The Story of My Experiments with Truth
by M. K. Gandhi
from Navajivan Publishing House
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$4.80 (1 in stock)
Andersonville
by MacKinlay Kantor
from World Publishing Company
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1955 Pulitzer Prize Winner
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Bad Faith
by Carmen Callil
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Battle from the Start
by Brian Steel Wills
from HarperCollins
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
Behind the Scenes
by Elizabeth Keckley, edited by Frances Smith Foster
from Lakeside Press
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Being American in Europe 1750-1860
by Daniel Kilbride
from Johns Hopkins University Press
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$14.00 (1 in stock)
Better a Shield Than a Sword
by Edward Teller
from Free Press
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$6.40 (1 in stock)
Between the Lines
by Tom and Delphine Frazier
from Regent Press
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$6.40 (1 in stock)
Brave Men
by Ernie Pyle
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British are Coming
The Revolution Trilogy #1 of 3
by Rick Atkinson
from Henry Holt and Company
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Buffalo Bill and the Wild West
by Henry Blackman Sell and Victor Weybright
Reprint from International Cody Family Assoc.
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Chickamauga
by Horace Porter
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Christopher Columbus and His Legacy
Opposing Viewpoints Series
by Mary Ellen Jones, Editor
from Greenhaven Press
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$7.00 (1 in stock)
Christopher Columbus: His Story and His Journals
Knowledge Keepers Home Library Series 1492
by Edward Everett Hale and Edward Gaylord Bourne
from Knowledge Keepers
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$9.60 (1 in stock)
Churchill: Walking with Destiny
by Andrew Roberts
from Penguin Books
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Civil War: 1850-1895
American History by Era Volume 5
by Auriana Ojeda, book editor
from Greenhaven Press
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$14.00 (1 in stock)
Civil War: A History
by Harry Hansen, Introduction by Richard S. Wheeler, Foreword by Gary Gallagher
from New American Library
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance
by John R. Hale
from HarperCollins
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$9.00 (1 in stock)
Colonial Period: 1607-1750
American History by Era Volume 2
by Brenda Stalcup (editor)
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$11.00 (1 in stock)
Confederate War
by Gary W. Gallagher
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Conquerors
by Michael Beschloss
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Cry of the Kalahari
by Mark and Delia Owens
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$4.80 (1 in stock)
Daily Life in Johnson's London
by Richard B. Schwartz
1st edition
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Dead and Those About to Die
by John C. McManus
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Dearest Mama
by Roger Fulford, editor
from Evans Brothers Limited
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
Defining Moment
by Jonathan Alter
from Simon and Schuster
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Devil in Massachusetts
by Marion L. Starkey
from Anchor Books
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier
by Jakob Walter, edited and introduced by Marc Raeff
from Doubleday & Company
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Eighty Days
by Matthew Goodman
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Eighty Days
by Matthew Goodman
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Einstein's Clocks, Poincare's Maps
by Peter Galison
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Elizabeth and Essex: A Tragic History
by Lytton Strachey
4th Printing from Harcourt, Brace & Company
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Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men
by Jeffrey Rogers Hummel
1st edition from Open Court Publishing
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$6.00 (2 in stock)
Embattled Rebel
by James M. McPherson
from Penguin Press
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$7.20 (1 in stock)
Emergence of Latin America in the Nineteenth Century
by David Bushnell & Neill Macaulay
from Oxford University
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
England's Glorious Revolution 1688-1689
by Steven C. A. Pincus
from Bedford Press
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Everyday Life in the Viking Age
by Jacqueline Simpson, drawings by Eva Wilson
from Dorset Press
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$7.00 (1 in stock)
Extravagant Hunger
by Anne Zimmerman
from Counterpoint, LLC
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$6.40 (1 in stock)
FDR
by Jean Edward Smith
from Random House
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Fighting for Liberty and Virtue
by Marvin Olasky
from Crossway Books
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
First Great Civilizations
by Jacquetta Hawkes
1st edition from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Folk Arts and Crafts of New England
by Priscilla Sawyer Lord & Daniel J. Foley
Updated from Chilton Book Company
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Forever Free
by Eric Foner, illustrations edited with commentary by Joshua Brown
from Vintage Classics
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Freighters and Pilgrims
Knowledge Keepers Home Library Series 1865
by Charles E. Young and Sarah Raymond Herndon
from Knowledge Keepers
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$9.00 (1 in stock)
Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson
by Gordon S. Wood
from Penguin Press
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$7.20 (1 in stock)
From a Name to a Number
by Alter Wiener
from Authorhouse
for 11th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$10.40 (1 in stock)
General Lee: Southern Commander
Knowledge Keepers Home Library Series 1861
by John Esten Cooke, Captain Robert E. Lee, foreword by Nicki Truesdell
from Knowledge Keepers
for Adult
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
Gettysburg: The Last Invasion
by Allen C. Guelzo
from Vintage Books
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
Gilded Age: A History in Documents
Pages From History
by Janette Thomas Greenwood
from Oxford University
for 9th-12th grade
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
Girl in the Picture
by Denise Chong
from Charles Scribner's Sons
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in Vietnam War (1957-1975) (Location: HISA-20VIE)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Glorious Cause
The Oxford History of the United States
by Robert Middlekauff
Revised from Oxford University
for Adult
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
Grant and Twain
by Mark Perry
from Random House
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in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
Greatest Generation
by Tom Brokaw
1st edition from Random House
for Adult
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$5.00 (2 in stock)
Greatest Generation Speaks
by Tom Brokaw
1st edition from Random House
for Adult
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Hidden Life of Otto Frank
by Carol Ann Lee
from William Morrow & Company
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$3.20 (1 in stock)
Higher Call
by Adam Makos with Larry Alexander
from Dutton Caliber
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$22.00 $11.00 (1 in stock)
Hitler
by Ernst Hanfstaengl, translated and introduction by John Willard Toland, Afterword by Egon Hanfstaegl
from Arcade Publishing
for Adult
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$9.00 (1 in stock)
Hostile Skies
by James J. Hudson
1st edition from Syracuse University Press
for Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Ike's Bluff
by Evan Thomas
from Little, Brown & Company
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$7.50 (1 in stock)
In the Arena: A Memoir of Victory, Defeat and Renewal
by Richard Nixon
1st edition from Simon & Schuster Macmillan
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
In the Name of the Father
by Francois Furstenberg
from Penguin Books
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Invention of Nature
by Andrea Wulf
from Vintage Books
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
Iriquois Handbook
Knowledge Keepers Home Library Series 1771
by Reverend John Heckewelder
from Knowledge Keepers
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$9.00 (2 in stock)
Island at the Center of the World
by Russell Shorto
from Vintage Books
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Jacksonland
by Steve Inskeep
from Penguin Press
for 11th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Jarhead
by Anthony Swofford
from Scribner
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Jefferson Davis and His Generals
by Steven E. Woodworth
from University Press of Kansas
for 11th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
Jerusalem, Jerusalem
by James Carroll
from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
John Wanamaker: King of Merchants
by William Allen Zulker
from Eaglecrest Press
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
Junior Officer's Reading Club
by Patrick Hennessey
from Riverhead Books
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Justinian & Theodora
by Robert Browning
from Thames and Hudson
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Killing the Wizards
by Alan Cowell
from Simon and Schuster
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Kingdom Strange
by James Horn
from Basic Books
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$8.50 (1 in stock)
Labor's Untold Story
by Herbert M. Morais, Richard O. Boyer
3rd edition from United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of Amer
for 9th-Adult
in Industrialization & Organized Labor (Location: HISA-19IND)
$5.00 (2 in stock)
Land as God Made It
by James Horn
from Basic Books
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Lexington Goes Down
by A. A. Hoehling
from Prentice Hall
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Liberators
by Michael Hirsh
from Bantam Books
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Light of Days
by Judy Batalion
from William Morrow & Company
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Little Bighorn
by Robert Nightengale
from Far West Publishing
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Lost Men
by Kelly Tyler-Lewis
from Viking Press
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
Making Friends with Hitler
by Ian Kershaw
from Penguin Press
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Man Who Would Not Be Washington
by Jonathan Horn
from Scribner
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Marching Home
by Kevin Coyne
from Viking Press
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Mathew Brady
by James D. Horan
from Bonanza Books
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
Mayflower
by Nathaniel Philbrick
from Penguin Putnam
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in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Memorial Volume of Jefferson Davis
by J. William Jones
from Sprinkle Publications
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in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$17.60 (2 in stock)
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