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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10,000 Days of Thunder
by Philip Caputo
1st edition from Atheneum
for 5th-10th grade
in Vietnam War (1957-1975) (Location: HISA-20VIE)
Alexander the Great
by Charles Mercer
from Harper & Row
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America During Four Wars
by Earl Schenck Miers & Felix Sutton
from Grosset & Dunlap
in American History Reference (Location: HISA-REF)
America Grows Up
A History for Peter #2
by Gerald W. Johnson, illustrated by Leonard Everett Fisher
from William Morrow & Company
for 7th-12th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
America is Born
A History for Peter #1
by Gerald W. Johnson (iilustrations by Leonard Everett Fisher)
from William Morrow & Company
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in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$45.00 (1 in stock)
America Moves Forward
A History for Peter #3
by Gerald W. Johnson
from William Morrow & Company
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Art & Civilization: Renaissance
by Paul Procter, Rupert Matthews
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$14.00
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by Lillo Canto
from Chelsea House Publishing
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Augustus Caesar's World
by Genevieve Foster
from Charles Scribner's Sons
Non-fiction for 7th-10th grade
Cathy Duffy's 100 Top Picks
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Dateline: Troy
by Paul Fleischman
from Candlewick Press
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$7.50 (1 in stock)
Exploration and Conquest
by Betsy & Giulio Maestro
1st edition from Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books
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Exploration and Conquest
by Betsy & Giulio Maestro
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Explorers, Missionaries, and Trappers
by Kieran Doherty
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Fight for Freedom
by Benson Bobrick
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First 3000 Years
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First World War
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For You They Signed
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Four Wagons West
by Robert Frye Watt
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Genesis: Finding Our Roots
by Ruth Beechick
from Arrow Press
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George Washington's World (pictorial hardcover)
by Genevieve Foster
from Charles Scribner's Sons
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$38.00 (1 in stock)
Golden Book History of the United States
by Earl Schenck Miers, illustrated by Alton S. Tobey and Richard P. Kluga
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Golden Book History of the United States - 12 Volume Set
by Earl Schenck Miers, illustrated by Alton S. Tobey and Richard P. Kluga
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Golden Book History of the United States Volume 1
by Earl Schenck Miers
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Golden Book History of the United States Volume 2
by Earl Schenck Miers
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by Earl Schenck Miers
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by Earl Schenck Miers
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by Earl Schenck Miers
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Good Fight
by Stephen Ambrose
from Atheneum
WWII Historical Reference for 4th-9th grade
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$27.99
Great Britain to 1688 / Great Britain Since 1688
by Maurice Ashley and K.B. Smellie
from University of Michigan Press
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Great Explorers
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History of God's Remarkable Providences
by Increase Mather
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History of the Modern World
by Terry Burrows, ed.
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History of the Renaissance World
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Life & Times of Louis XIV
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Light and the Glory 1492-1793
by Peter Marshall, David Manuel
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Lorenzo de' Medici and the Renaissance
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Making of America
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Many Thousand Gone
by Virginia Hamilton
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Miracle at Philadelphia
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Nelson and the Age of Fighting Sail
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Of Courage Undaunted
by James Daugherty
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Oregon's Iron Dream
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Orphan Train Rider
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Panama Canal
by Elizabeth Mann
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People of the Century
by Various
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Pharaohs of Egypt
by Jacquetta Hawkes
from Harper & Row
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Renaissance Town
Inside Story
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Rising Sun Volume 1
by John Toland
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Russia Under the Czars
by Henry Moscow
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Scottsboro Case
Events That Shaped America
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Search for King Arthur
by Christopher Hibbert
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Shakespeare's England
by Louis B. Wright
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Shutting Out the Sky
by Deborah Hopkinson
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2004 NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book
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Sir Walter Raleigh and the Quest for El Dorado
by Marc Aronson
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2001 Robert F. Sibert Medal winner
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by Hugh A. White, William J. Hoge
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Story of Flight
by Mary Lee Settle
from Random House
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Story of Polar Conquest
by Logan Marshall, ed.
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Story of the Declaration of Independence
by Dumas Malone; pictures by Hirst Milhollen and Milton Kaplan
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Time: The Century Collection
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Two Churches
by Robert Brentano
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V is for Victory
by Sylvia Whitman
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Vancouver's Discovery of Puget Sound
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Visual History of the Modern World
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Ill from Carlton Books
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War Between the States
by John J. Dwyer and editors
1st edition from American Vision Press
American History Reference for 9th-Adult
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$32.00 (1 in stock)
War Between the States
by John J. Dwyer and editors
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American History Reference for 9th-Adult
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$49.95
What's the Deal?
by Rhoda Blumberg
from National Geographic
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World of Captain John Smith (pictorial hardcover)
by Genevieve Foster
from Charles Scribner's Sons
Non-fiction for 7th-10th grade
Cathy Duffy's 100 Top Picks
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World of William Penn
by Genevieve Foster
from Charles Scribner's Sons
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World War I
by Gail Stewart
from Lucent Press
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$8.00 (2 in stock)
Year of Independence, 1776
by Genevieve Foster
from Charles Scribner's Sons
History Reference/Biography for 7th-10th grade
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Year of the Horseless Carriage: 1801
by Genevieve Foster
from Charles Scribner's Sons
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Year of the Pilgrims, 1620
by Genevieve Foster
from Charles Scribner's Sons
History Reference/Biography for 7th-10th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Young People's Story of the Ancient World (No. 2)
by Virgil M. Hillyer & E. G. Huey
from Meredith Press
for 4th-10th grade
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