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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145 Items found Print
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Abraham Lincoln's World
by Genevieve Foster, expanded by Joanna Foster
from Beautiful Feet Books
Historical Non-fiction for 7th-10th grade
1945 Newbery Honor Book
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Adventures of Theodore Roosevelt
by Theodore Roosevelt
from National Geographic
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Al Capone Does My Shirts
by Gennifer Choldenko
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2005 Newbery Honor Book
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Alfred the Great
by Asser
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Anne Bradstreet
Christian Renegades Series
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Artist of the Reformation
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Benjamin Franklin: The Autobiography and Other Writings
Signet Classics
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Betty Before X
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Beyond the Myth
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from Sandpiper Books
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Bonhoeffer: The Cost of Freedom - Audio Drama (CD)
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Book of Discovery
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Boys in the Boat adapted for Young Readers
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Call of Duty
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Chance to Die
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Children of the Storm
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Churchill
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Co. Aytch
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Come On, Seabiscuit!
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Coronation of Glory
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Diary of a Young Girl
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Early Church
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Elizabeth I
by Jacob Abbott, updated for the present day reader by Knox Merkle
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Endurance
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Evidence Not Seen
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Faithful Spy
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Florence Nightingale
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For God and His People
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$13.00
For You They Signed
by Marilyn Boyer
All-in-One Edition from Master Books
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$39.19
Forgotten Founding Father
Leaders in Action Series
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Four Voyages
by Christopher Columbus
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George Whitefield
by Arnold A. Dallimore
from Crossway Books
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God and Ronald Reagan
by Paul Kengor
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God's Smuggler
by Brother Andrew
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Going Solo
by Roald Dahl
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Governor of England
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Great Adventurers of the Twentieth Century
by Ron Tagliapietra
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Makers of History Series
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Harriet Tubman: Moses of Her People
from Dover Publications
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Helen Keller: The Story of My Life
Signet Classics
by Helen Keller
Reprint from Signet Classics
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$5.95
Heralds of the Reformation
by Richard Hannula
from Canon Press
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$15.00
Here I Stand
by Roland H. Bainton
from Meridian Book
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Heroes of the Middle Ages
by Eva March Tappan
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Hiding Place
by Corrie Ten Boom
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Hiding Place
by Corrie Ten Boom
35th Anniversary Edition from Chosen Books
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Hiding Place - Audio Drama (CD)
by Corrie Ten Boom
Unabridged from Focus on the Family
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$23.99
History of US Book 7
History of US Book 7
by Joy Hakim
3rd Revised Edition from Oxford University
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Hitler
by Albert Marrin
from Beautiful Feet Books
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Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
by Harriet Jacobs
from Dover Publications
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Jason Lee
Sowers Series
by Charles Ludwig
from Mott Media
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Jessie Benton Fremont
by Marguerite Higgins
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Joan of Arc
by Mark Twain
from Ignatius Press
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John Bunyan
by William Deal
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John Calvin, Genius of Geneva
Reformation Trail Series #07
by Lawrence Penning
from Inheritance Publications
Biography for 6th-9th grade
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John Knox: Stalwart Courage
by Douglas Wilson, foreword by George Grant
from Canon Press
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Jonathan Edwards
by Stephen J. Nichols
from P&R Publishing
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Journals of Lewis & Clark
Signet Classics
by John Bakeless, editor
from Signet Classics
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$8.95
Journey and Ordeal of Cabeza de Vaca
Dover editions
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from Dover Publications
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Kitty, My Rib
by E. Jane Mall
from Concordia Publishing House
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Kon-Tiki
by Thor Heyerdahl
from Pocket Books
Non-fiction/Adventure for 8th-Adult
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$8.99
Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Biography
by William Anderson
from HarperTrophy
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Laura Ingalls Wilder: Pioneer Girl
by Laura Ingalls Wilder, edited by Pamela Smith Hill
from South Dakota State Historical Society Press
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$39.99
Life of Christopher Columbus
by Edward Everett Hale
from Living Book Press
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Life of General Stonewall Jackson
by Mary Williamson
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Life of George Washington
by Mary Williamson
from Christian Liberty Press
Biography for 7th-10th grade
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Life of J.E.B. Stuart
by Mary Williamson
2nd edition from Christian Liberty Press
Biography for 7th-10th grade
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Life of John Calvin
by Theodore Beza
3rd edition from Back Home Industries
Biography for 9th-Adult
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$15.00
Life of King Alfred
by Asser
from Living Book Press
Biography for 9th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$5.94
Life of Sir Thomas More
by William Roper
from CreateSpace
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in Renaissance & Reformation Literature (Location: LIT3-REN)
$5.99
Life on the Mississippi
Signet Classics
by Mark Twain
from Signet Classics
Autobiography for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$4.95
Lincoln: A Photobiography
by Russell Freedman
from Houghton Mifflin
Biography for 5th-9th grade
1988 Newbery Medal winner
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$12.99 $7.50 (5 in stock)
Luther by Those Who Knew Him
Reformation Trail Series #20
by Elizabeth R. Charles
from Inheritance Publications
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in Reformation Trail Series (Location: FIC-WH06)
$19.95
Martin Luther
by J. A. Morrison
2nd edition from Christian Liberty Press
Biography for 7th-10th grade
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$10.50
Martin Luther
by J. A. Morrison
3rd edition from Christian Liberty Press
Biography for 7th-10th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$11.75
Martin Luther: The Man and His Work
Reformation Trail Series #19
by Arthur C. McGiffert
from Inheritance Publications
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in Reformation Trail Series (Location: FIC-WH06)
$19.95
Medical Corps Heroes of World War II
Landmark #120
by Wyatt Blassingame
2022 Reprint from Purple House Press
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in World War II (1939-1945) (Location: HISA-20WW2)
$15.99
Meditations
by Marcus Aurelius
from Modern Library
Classic Literature for 9th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$11.00
Mein Kampf
by Adolf Hitler, translated by Michael Ford
from Elite Minds, Inc.
Autobiography for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$29.95
Memories of a Berlin Childhood
by Marianne Buchwalter
First Edition from Premier Publishing
Biography for 7th-12th grade
in WWII: European Theater (Location: HISA-20WW2E)
$13.95
Miracle in the Hills
by Mary T. Martin Sloop with Legette Blythe
from McGraw-Hill
for 9th-Adult
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$10.00 $7.00 (1 in stock)
Mornings on Horseback
by David McCullough
1st edition from Simon & Schuster Macmillan
for 9th-Adult
National; Book Award
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$20.00
Mountain Men and Fur Traders of the Far West
by LeRoy R. Hafen & Harvey L. Carter
from University of Nebraska
Biography for 9th-Adult
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$21.95 $12.00 (1 in stock)
Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee
by David Crockett
Reprint from Bison Books
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Never Give In
Leaders in Action Series
by Stephen Mansfield
from Cumberland House
Biography for 9th-Adult
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$19.99
Not a Tame Lion
Leaders in Action Series
by Terry Glaspey
from Cumberland House
Biography for 9th-Adult
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$7.96
Ocean-Born Mary
by Lois Lenski
1st Edition Thus from Purple House Press
for 3rd-10th grade
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$17.99
Of Plymouth Plantation
by William Bradford
from Dover Publications
for 9th-Adult
in 17th Century Literature (Location: LIT4-17)
$14.95
On Slavery and the Civil War
Dover Thrift Editions
by Frederick Douglass
from Dover Publications
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$2.00
Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc
by Mark Twain
from Living Book Press
Biography for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$15.29
Pierre Viret
by Jean-Marc Berthoud
1st edition
for 9th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$14.50
Plutarch's Lives Volume I
by Plutarch, translated by John Dryden
from Modern Library
Biography for 9th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$19.00
Plutarch's Lives Volume I
by Plutarch, translated by John Dryden
from Modern Library
Biography for 9th-Adult
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