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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Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies
Hornblower Series #11
by C. S. Forester
from Little, Brown & Company
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$14.00 (1 in stock)
Adventures of Perrine
Windermere Readers #10
by Hector Malot, translated by Gil Meynier, adapted by Edith Heal
1954 edition from Rand McNally
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All Aboard for Freedom
by Marie McSwigan, illustrated by E. Harper Johnson, with an introduction by Jan Papanek
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All-of-a-Kind Family
All-of-a-Kind Family Series #1
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Family Stories for 2nd-6th grade
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Anna of Byzantium
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Apprentice
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Aquila's Drinking Gourd
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Brothers in Hope
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Bud, Not Buddy
by Christopher Paul Curtis
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1940 Newbery Honor Book
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Little House Series #5
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1940 Newbery Honor Book
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Canterbury Tales
by Barbara Cohen & Trina Schart Hyman
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Captive
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1958 2nd Printing from Viking Press
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Chariot in the Sky
Land of the Free Series
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Historical fiction for 6th-10th grade
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Norse Mythology for 3rd-8th grade
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Children of the Fox
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by Agnes Hewes, illustrated by Armstrong Sperry
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1937 Newbery Honor Book
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Cornstalks and Cannonballs
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Countdown
by Deborah Wiles
1st edition from Scholastic Press
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Cowboy Boots
by Shannon Garst
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Dark Frigate
by Charles Boardman Hawes, illustrated by Warrenn Chappell
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Dark Moment
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Darkness and the Dawn
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Earth is the Lord's
by Taylor Caldwell
from Literary Guild of America
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Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
by Jacqueline Kelly
from Henry Holt and Company
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Far Frontier
by William O. Steele; illustrated by Paul Galdone
from Harcourt
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Favorite Greek Myths
by Mary Pope Osborne, illustrated by Troy Howell
from Scholastic Inc.
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First Four Years
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
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First Four Years (Pictorial Cover)
by Laura Ingalls Wilder; illustrated by Garth Williams
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Flaming Arrows
by William O. Steele, Illustrated by Paul Galdone
1st edition from Harcourt
Historical Fiction for 3rd-6th grade
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Going to Town
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from Scholastic Press
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Going West
by Jean Van Leeuwen, illustrated by Thomas Allen
from Dial Books for Young Readers
Historical fiction for 2nd-4th grade
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Golden Age
by Kenneth Grahame, illustrated by Maxfield Parrish
from Ten Speed Press
for 6th-9th grade
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck
3rd printing from Viking Press
for 9th-Adult
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$24.00 (1 in stock)
Gudrid's Saga
by Constance Irwin
from St. Martin's Press
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Hannah Fowler
Kentucky trilogy #2
by Janice Holt Giles
Book Club Edition from Houghton Mifflin
for Adult
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$7.00 (1 in stock)
Helmet of Navarre
by Burke Wilkinson, illustrated by James W. Williamson
Second Printing from Macmillan
for 5th-8th grade
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
Hitty: Her First Hundred Years
by Rachel Field, illustrated by Dorothy P. Lathrop
1969 printing from Macmillan
for 5th-9th grade
1930 Newbery Medal Winner
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Horses of Anger
by James Forman
2nd Printing from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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House Divided
by Ben Ames Williams, jacket & illustrations by Reginald Marsh
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How I Became an American
by Karin Gundisch
from Cricket Books
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Jack Wade, Fighter for Liberty
A Doubleday Signal Book
by Irving Werstein, illustrated by Albert Orbaan
from Doubleday & Company
for 4th-8th grade
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
January's Sparrow
by Patricia Polacco
from Philomel Books
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$16.00 (1 in stock)
Johnny Tremain
by Esther Forbes, illustrated by Lynd Ward
from Houghton Mifflin
for 3rd-4th
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Journey to the River Sea
by Eva Ibbotson
First Edition from Dutton Juvenile
for 5th-7th grade
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$7.50 (1 in stock)
Justin Morgan Had a Horse
G&D Famous Horse Stories
by Marguerite Henry
from Grosset & Dunlap
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Justin Morgan Had a Horse
by Marguerite Henry, illustrated by Wesley Dennis
1958th edition from Rand McNally
for 3rd-6th grade
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
Kathleen: A Yankee Girl at Gettysburg
by Alice Turner Curtis
from Gramercy Books
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$5.50 (2 in stock)
King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table
Illustrated Junior Library Series 4
by Sir Thomas Malory, edited by Sidney Lanier and illustrated by Florian
from Grosset & Dunlap
British Fairy Tales/Prose Epic for 4th-8th grade
$12.50 (1 in stock)
Kings Mountain
by G. Clifton Wisler
1st edition from HarperCollins
for 4th-6th grade
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Lady of Arlington
by Harnett T. Kane
from Doubleday & Company
for 6th-12th grade
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Last Days of Pompeii
by Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton
from Books, Inc.
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Last Days of Pompeii
by Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton
from Heritage Press
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
Legends of the Wild West
by James A. Crutchfield, Bill O'Neal, Dale L. Walker
from Publications International
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Lewis and Clark and Me
by Laurie Myers
from Henry Holt and Company
Fictionalized Biography for 3rd-6th grade
in Lewis & Clark (Location: HISA-19L&C)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Liberty Letters: The Personal Correspondence of Hannah Brown and Sarah Smith
by Nancy LeSourd
1st edition from Zonderkidz
for 3rd-6th grade
in Series Books (Location: SER-MISC)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Liberty Letters: The Story of Pocahontas, 1613
Liberty Letters
by Nancy LeSourd
1st edition from Zondervan
Historical Fiction for 3rd-6th grade
in Series Books (Location: SER-MISC)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Lindbergh
Classic Starts
by Torben Kuhlmann, Translated by David Henry Wilson
from NorthSouth
for 2nd-6th grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$19.95 $10.00 (1 in stock)
Little Fishes
from Houghton Mifflin
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Little House in the Big Woods
by Laura Ingalls Wilder, illustrated by Garth Williams
Book Club Edition from Harper & Row
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Little House in the Big Woods (Pictorial Cover)
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from Harper & Row
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$9.00 (5 in stock)
Little Women
Illustrated Junior Library Series 4
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by Louis Jambor
from Grosset & Dunlap
Romantic Realistic Fiction for 4th-9th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by Dinah Dryhurst
Reprint from Breslich & Foss
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 5th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy
by Gary D. Schmidt
from Scholastic Inc.
for 7th-9th grade
2005 Newbery Honor Book
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Long Meg
by Rosemary Minard, illustrated by Philip Smith
from Pantheon Books
for 1st-4th grade
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Long Winter
Little House Series #6
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-8th grade
1941 Newbery Honor Book
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$19.99 $9.50 (1 in stock)
Lord Hornblower
by C. S. Forester
from Little, Brown & Company
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
Man with the Silver Eyes
by William O. Steele
from Harcourt Brace Jovanich
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Merlin's Mistake
by Robert Newman, illustrated by Richard Lebenson
First Edition from Atheneum
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Mighty Jackie
by Marissa Moss
1st edition from Simon & Schuster Macmillan
$11.00 $96.00 (1 in stock)
Mighty Mastiff of the Mayflower
by Peter Arenstam, illustrated by Karen Busch Holman
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Moneyman
by Thomas B. Costain
from Nelson Doubleday, Inc.
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
More All-of-a-Kind Family
All-of-a-Kind Family Series #3
by Sydney Taylor; illustrated by Mary Stevens
from Follett Publishing Co.
Family Stories for 2nd-6th grade
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$34.00 (1 in stock)
More Perfect Than the Moon
by Patricia MacLachlan
Fir from Scholastic Reference
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
More Perfect Than the Moon
by Patricia MacLachlan
from HarperCollins
for 4th-6th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
My Brother Sam Is Dead
by James & Christopher Collier
from Simon and Schuster
Historical Fiction for 5th-8th grade
1975 Newbery Honor Book
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
My Brothers' Flying Machine
by Jane Yolen
from Little, Brown & Company
for Kindergarten-3rd grade
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Never Dies the Dream
by Margaret Landon
from Doubleday & Company
for 7th-12th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
North of Danger
by Dale Fife, map and decorations by Haakon Saether
1st edition from E.P. Dutton & Co.
for 3rd-6th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
North to Freedom
by Anne Holm
from Harcourt, Brace & World
for 4th-7th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$8.00 (2 in stock)
Not Regina
by Christmas Carol Kauffman
Fourth Printing from Pathway Publishers
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Orphan for Nebraska
A Guild Book
by Charlene Joy Talbot
from Atheneum
Realistic Fiction for 4th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Our Only May Amelia
by Jennifer L. Holm
from HarperCollins
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$8.00 (3 in stock)
Out of the Dust
by Karen Hesse
from Scholastic Inc.
Realistic Fiction for 6th-8th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
12