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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1493 for Young People
by Charles C. Mann, adapted by Rebecca Stefoff
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Adam and His Kin
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Al Capone Does My Shirts
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Alexander the Great
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Mti from Zonderkidz
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American Waterways: Canal Days
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Amistad Slave Revolt and American Abolition
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People of the Ancient World
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Anne Frank: Beyond the Diary
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Antarctica: Escape from Disaster
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Archimedes and the Door of Science
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Atlas of North American Exploration
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Augustine Came to Kent
Bethlehem Books Living History Library
by Barbara Willard
from Bethlehem Books
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Journey Into Civilization
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Beggars' Bible
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Beggars' Victory
Struggle for Freedom Series #3
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Behind the Blue and Gray
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Beowulf
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Beyond the Sacred Page
Book of Books #2
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Big Annie of Calumet
by Jerry Stanley
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Biography of Benjamin Franklin
Sons of Liberty Series
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Sons of Liberty Series
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Bold Journey
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Bomb
by Steve Sheinkin
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2013 Newbery Honor Book
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Book of Boy
by Catherine Gilbert Murdock, illustrated by Ian Schoenherr
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2019 Newbery Honor Book
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Boston Jane
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Boy and the Samurai
by Erik Christian Haugaard
Reissue from HMH Books for Young Readers
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Boy on the Wooden Box
by Leon Leyson
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Boy's War
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Boys' War
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Breaking Stalin's Nose
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2012 Newbery Honor Book
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Buffalo Bill
by Helen Cody Wetmore
from University of Nebraska
Biography for 6th-9th grade
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Bull Run
by Paul Fleischman, David Frampton (Woodcuts)
2nd edition from Scholastic Inc.
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Castle Diary
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Seeds of America #1
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Child's Day
Historic Communities
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Children of the Wild West
by Russell Freedman
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Children's Homer
by Padraic Colum & Willy Pogany
from Aladdin Paperbacks
Greek Mythology for 3rd-8th grade
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Children's Stories
Tales of the Wild West Volume 6
by Rick Steber
from Bonanza Publishing
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Civil War
by Janet Cassidy
from Scholastic Inc.
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Civil War
by Pat Wesolowski
from Unknown Publisher
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Step Into History
by Steven Otfinoski
from Children's Press
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Civil War for Kids
by Janis Herbert
from Chicago Review Press
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Cleopatra
by Jacob Abbott
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Colonial Town: Williamsburg
by Bobbie Kalman
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Coloring Book of the Olympics
by E. Knill
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Columbus and the Renaissance Explorers
by Colin Hynson
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Come On, Seabiscuit!
by Ralph Moody
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Biography for 5th-9th grade
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Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun
by Rhoda Blumberg
from HarperCollins
Historical Non-Fiction for 4th-8th grade
1986 Newbery Honor Book
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Courage and Conviction
History Lives Volume 3
by Mindy & Brandon Withrow
from Christian Focus Publications
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Cowboys
Tales of the Wild West Volume 4
by Rick Steber
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Cowboys of the Wild West
by Russell Freedman
from Sandpiper Books
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Cowboys of the Wild West
by Russell Freedman
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Cyrus the Persian
by Sherman A. Nagel
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Danger in the Desert
by Roger Cohen
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Daniel Boone
by Daniel Boone
from Applewood Books
Biography for 4th-8th grade
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Darkness Over Denmark
by Ellen Levine
from Scholastic Inc.
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Dateline: Troy
by Paul Fleischman
New Updated Edition from Candlewick Press
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Davy Crockett
by David Crockett
from Applewood Books
Biography for 4th-8th grade
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Diary of an Early American Boy
by Eric Sloane
from Dover Publications
American History Reference for 4th-8th grade
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Dietrich Bonhoeffer
by Geoff Benge, Janet Benge
from YWAM Publishing
Biography for 5th-8th grade
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Dispelling the Tyranny
Struggle for Freedom Series #2
by Piet Prins
from Inheritance Publications
Historical Fiction for 4th-8th grade
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$12.95 $7.00 (2 in stock)
DK Eyewitness: Civil War
by John Stanchack
from DK Publishing
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Early Thunder
by Jean Fritz
from Puffin Books
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$7.99 $4.00 (2 in stock)
Eating the Plates
by Lucille Recht Penner
from Aladdin Paperbacks
for 4th-9th grade
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Ella of All-of-a-Kind Family
All-of-a-Kind Family Series #5
by Sydney Taylor, illustrated by Gail Owens
from Lizzie Skurnick Books
Family Stories for 6th-9th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$12.95 $9.00 (1 in stock)
Escape
Huguenot Inheritance Series #1
by A. Van der Jagt
from Inheritance Publications
Historical fiction for 7th-10th grade
in Huguenot Inheritance Series (Location: FIC-WH02)
$13.95 $7.00 (1 in stock)
Escape from Slavery
by Frederick Douglass, edited and illustrated by Michael McCurdy, foreword by Coretta Scott King
from Beautiful Feet Books
for 6th-8th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$13.99 $9.00 (1 in stock)
Exploration and Conquest
The American Story Series
by Betsy & Giulio Maestro
from HarperCollins
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$11.99 $7.50 (2 in stock)
Exploration of Africa
by Colin Hynson
from Scholastic Inc.
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in Africa (Location: HISMC-AFR)
$2.50 (1 in stock)
Explorers Who Got Lost
by Diane Dreher
from Tor Classic
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Faith Unfurled
from History Compass
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Famous Men of Modern Times - Student Guide
by Leigh Lowe & Tanya Charlton
from Memoria Press
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$20.50 $12.00 (3 in stock)
Famous Men of Modern Times - Teacher Guide
by Leigh Lowe & Tanya Charlton
from Memoria Press
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Farewell to Manzanar
by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston
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Father to Nobody's Children
by David E. Fessenden
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Father's Promise
by Donna Hess
from Bob Jones University Press
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Florence Nightingale
Sowers Series
by David Collins
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Biography for 5th-7th grade
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For God and Country
by John Riddle
from Barbour Publishing
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$2.50 (1 in stock)
For the Heart of Holland
Struggle for Freedom Series #4
by Piet Prins
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Historical Fiction for 4th-8th grade
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Forgotten Daughter
by Caroline Dale Snedeker
from American Home-School Publishing
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1934 Newbery Honor Book
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
Fort Clatsop
by Daniel J. Dattilio
from KC Publishing
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in Oversized History Books (Location: HISW-OVER)
$4.50 (2 in stock)
Francis Asbury
by Geoff Benge, Janet Benge
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Biographies for 4th-7th grade
in Christian Heroes: Then and Now (Location: BIO-BENGE)
$11.99 $6.00 (1 in stock)
Francis Scott Key
Sowers Series
by David Collins
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in Sowers Biographies (Location: BIO-SOW)
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George Washington
Sowers Series
by Norma Cournow Camp
from Mott Media
Biography for 6th-8th grade
in Sowers Biographies (Location: BIO-SOW)
$5.00 (2 in stock)
George Washington Carver
Heroes of History
by Geoff & Janet Benge
from Emerald Books
Biography for 4th-7th grade
in Heroes of History (Location: BIO-BENGE)
$11.99 $6.00 (1 in stock)
George Washington's World
by Genevieve Foster, expanded by Joanna Foster
from Beautiful Feet Books
History Reference/Biography for 7th-10th grade
1942 Newbery Honor Book
in American Revolution (1765-1783) (Location: HISA-18REV)
$15.00 (3 in stock)
Glorious Age in Africa
by Daniel Chu, Elliot Skinner
from Africa World Press, Inc.
for 5th-10th grade
in Africa (Location: HISMC-AFR)
$4.00 (5 in stock)
Going Solo
by Roald Dahl
from Puffin Books
for 7th-9th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$8.99 $4.50 (1 in stock)
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