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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Abe Lincoln Grows Up
by Carl Sandburg
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Adam and His Kin
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Adventures of Lewis and Clark
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Alone Yet Not Alone
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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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Archimedes and the Door of Science
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Atlas of North American Exploration
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Journey Into Civilization
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Beggars' Bible
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Bold Journey
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2013 Newbery Honor Book
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Book of the Ancient Greeks - Student Guide
by Matthew Anderson
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Boston Jane
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Boy and the Samurai
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Boy of the Pyramids
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Boy's War
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Buffalo Bill
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Seeds of America #1
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Greek Mythology for 3rd-8th grade
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Children's Homer
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Greek Mythology for 3rd-8th grade
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Chu Ju's House
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Civil War
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Civil War
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Step Into History
by Steven Otfinoski
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Civil War for Kids
by Janis Herbert
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Heroes of History
by Geoff & Janet Benge
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Colonial Town: Williamsburg
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Coloring Book of the Olympics
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Columbus and the Renaissance Explorers
by Colin Hynson
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Come On, Seabiscuit!
by Ralph Moody
from University of Nebraska
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Coming of Civilization
by Trevor Cairns
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Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun
by Rhoda Blumberg
from HarperCollins
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1986 Newbery Honor Book
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Tales of the Wild West Volume 4
by Rick Steber
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Cowboys of the Wild West
by Russell Freedman
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Cowboys of the Wild West
by Russell Freedman
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D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths
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Daniel Boone
by Daniel Boone
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Darkness Over Denmark
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Dateline: Troy
by Paul Fleischman
New Updated Edition from Candlewick Press
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Davy Crockett
by David Crockett
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Diary of an Early American Boy
by Eric Sloane
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by Eric Sloane
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Dispelling the Tyranny
Struggle for Freedom Series #2
by Piet Prins
from Inheritance Publications
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DK Eyewitness: Civil War
by John Stanchack
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Duncan's War
Crown & Covenant Series #1
by Douglas Bond
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Eagle of the Ninth
by Rosemary Sutcliff
Reprint from Square Fish Publishing
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Early Thunder
by Jean Fritz
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Eating the Plates
by Lucille Recht Penner
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Egyptian Life
by John Guy
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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
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Era of Modernization Through the 1930s
by Kathy Sammis
from Walch Publishing
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$4.00 (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)
Europe Finds the World
Cambridge Introduction to World History
by Trevor Cairns
from Cambridge University
for 6th-9th grade
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Exploration of Africa
by Colin Hynson
from Scholastic Inc.
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in Africa (Location: HISMC-AFR)
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Explorers Who Got Lost
by Diane Dreher
from Tor Classic
Non-fiction for 4th-8th grade
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Explorers Who Got Lost
by Diane Sansevere-Dreher, Illustrated by Ed Renfro
from Starscape
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Facing Death
by G. A. Henty
from Robinson Curriculum
Historical Fiction for 6th-10th grade
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Faith Unfurled
from History Compass
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Fall of Quebec
by George Ochoa
from Silver Burdett Press
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Famous Men of Modern Times - Student Guide
by Leigh Lowe & Tanya Charlton
from Memoria Press
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Famous Men of Modern Times - Teacher Guide
by Leigh Lowe & Tanya Charlton
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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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For God and Country
by John Riddle
from Barbour Publishing
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in Biography Anthologies (Location: BIO-ANTH)
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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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Fort Clatsop
by Daniel J. Dattilio
from KC Publishing
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Francis Scott Key
Sowers Series
by David Collins
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George Washington
Sowers Series
by Norma Cournow Camp
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Biography for 6th-8th grade
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George Washington & the Founding of a Nation
by Albert Marrin
from Dutton Juvenile
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George Washington's World
by Genevieve Foster, expanded by Joanna Foster and edited by Rea Berg
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History Reference/Biography for 7th-10th grade
1942 Newbery Honor Book
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Girl in Blue
by Ann Rinaldi
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Glimpses of Truth
Book of Books #1
by Jack Cavanaugh
from Zondervan
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$5.00 (1 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)
God King
Bethlehem Books Living History Library
by Joanne Williamson
from Bethlehem Books
Historical Fiction for 5th-8th grade
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Golden Fleece
by Padraic Colum & Willy Pogany
from Aladdin Paperbacks
Greek Mythology for 3rd-8th grade
1922 Newbery Honor Book
$10.99 $6.00 (3 in stock)
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!
by Laura Amy Schlitz
2nd edition from Candlewick Press
for 5th-9th grade
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$4.50 (2 in stock)
Grandpa's Stories
Tales of the Wild West Volume 10
by Rick Steber
from Bonanza Publishing
for 4th-7th grade
in Western Expansion (1800-1898) (Location: HISA-19WES)
$2.50 (1 in stock)
Great Battles of the Civil War
by John Macdonald
from John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
for 7th-Adult
in Oversized History Books (Location: HISW-OVER)
$15.00 (1 in stock)
Great Wheel
by Robert Lawson
from Walker and Company
Realistic fiction for 4th-8th grade
1958 Newbery Honor Book
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$9.99 $6.00 (2 in stock)
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