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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1776
by David McCullough
1st edition from Simon and Schuster
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Admiral David Glasgow Farragut
by Chester G. Hearn
from US Naval Institute Press
for 9th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies
Hornblower Series #11
by C. S. Forester
from Little, Brown & Company
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Admiral of the Ocean Sea
by Samuel E. Morison
from Atlantic Monthly Press
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Adventures of Buffalo Bill
by Col. William F. Cody
from Harper & Brothers
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in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Adventures of Captain Bonneville
by Washington Irving, illustrated by Robert Reynolds
Klickitat from Binford & Mort Publishing
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Mark Twain
from Reader's Digest
Realistic Fiction for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Age of Enlightenment
Great Ages of Man
by Peter Gay
from Time-Life Books
for 9th-Adult
in Great Ages of Man (Location: ADU-HISGAM)
Age of Exploration
Great Ages of Man
by John R. Hale
from Time-Life Books
for 9th-Adult
in Great Ages of Man (Location: ADU-HISGAM)
Age of Kings
Great Ages of Man
by Charles Blitzer
from Time-Life Books
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in Great Ages of Man (Location: ADU-HISGAM)
Air Forces of the World
by Sue Butterworth, editor
from Chartwell Books
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in Aviation History (Location: HISV-AVIA)
$18.00 (1 in stock)
Aku-Aku
by Thor Heyerdahl
from International Collectors Library
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Aku-Aku
by Thor Heyerdahl
from Rand McNally
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Album of Memories
by Tom Brokaw
from Random House
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$6.50 (1 in stock)
Album of the Civil War
by William Loren Katz
from Franklin Watts
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All Quiet on the Western Front
by Erich Maria Remarque
Book Club (BCE/BOMC) from Ballantine Books
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Amazing Mr. Doolittle
by Quentin Reynolds
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
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
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America in the Air War
by Edward Jablonski
from Time-Life Books
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
America's Heroes
from SP, L.L.C.
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
American Caesar
by William Manchester
from Little, Brown & Company
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American Fairy Tales
1st edition from Hyperion Books for Children
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American Heritage History of the American Revolution
by Bruce Lancaster
from American Heritage Publishing Co.
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
American Heritage History of the Indian Wars
by Robert M. Utley, Wilcomb E. Washburn
Revised from American Heritage Publishing Co.
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American Spirit
from LIFE Books
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Ancient America
Great Ages of Man
by Jonathan Norton Leonard
from Time-Life Books
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Andersonville
by MacKinlay Kantor
from World Publishing Company
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1955 Pulitzer Prize Winner
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Annals of Tacitus
by Cornelius Tacitus
from Franklin Library
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Annotated Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain
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Annotated Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant
by Ulysses S. Grant
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Biography for 9th-Adult
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Arabian Nights
Scribner Illustrated Classics
by Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith, editors, illustrated by Maxfield Parrish
from Charles Scribner's Sons
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Arabian Nights
International Collectors Library
by Sir Richard Burton, illustrated by Steele Savage
from International Collectors Library
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Arabian Nights
Scribner Illustrated Classics
by Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith, editors, illustrated by Maxfield Parrish
from Charles Scribner's Sons
Eastern Fairy Tales for 9th-Adult
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$29.99
Arabian Nights
by Amabel Williams-Ellis, illustrated by Pauline Baynes
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Arabian Nights
by Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith, editors, illustrated by Maxfield Parrish
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Army of the Potomac - 3 Volumes
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Assassins
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Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
World's Greatest Literature
by Benjamin Franklin
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Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini
by Benvenuto Cellini
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B. Franklin, Printer
by David A. Adler
from Holiday House
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$8.00 (2 in stock)
Bach: His Life and Times
by Tim Dowley
1st edition from Hippocrene Books
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Battle for the Falklands
by Max Hastings and Simon Jenkins
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Battle from the Start
by Brian Steel Wills
from HarperCollins
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$15.00 (1 in stock)
Battle of Austerlitz
by Trevor Dupuy
from Macmillan
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Bayeux Tapestry
by Norman Denny & Josephine Filmer-Sankey
First Edition from Atheneum
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Beau Geste
by Percival Christopher Wren
from Reader's Digest
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$9.00 (1 in stock)
Ben Snipes, Northwest Cattle King
by Roscoe Sheller
Third Edition from Binford & Mort Publishing
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Ben-Hur
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Lew Wallace
from Reader's Digest
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Ben-Hur
by Lew Wallace
from Harper & Brothers
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Berliners
by Vesper Stamper
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 7th-12th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$21.99
Beyond Stateliest Marble
Leaders in Action Series
by Doug Wilson
from Cumberland House
Biography for
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
Big Burn
by Timothy Egan
from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Black Man in America
from Franklin Watts
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$7.50 (1 in stock)
Black Rose
by Thomas B. Costain
from Doubleday & Company
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Blow Ye Winds Westerly
by Elizabeth Gemming
1st edition from Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.
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$9.00 (1 in stock)
Bombs and Blessings
by Retha Hazel Eldridge
from Review and Herald Publishing Association
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$7.00 (1 in stock)
Book of Marvels: Marvels of the Occident
from Living Book Press
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$27.99
Book of Marvels: Marvels of the Orient
by Richard Halliburton
from Living Book Press
for 3rd-12th grade
in International Landmarks & Symbols (Location: HISV-LANINT)
$27.99
Boys in the Boat
by Daniel James Brown
from Viking Press
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Brave Men
by Ernie Pyle
from Grosset & Dunlap
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$9.00 (1 in stock)
Brave Men
by Ernie Pyle
7th printing, 1945 from Henry Holt and Company
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Bret Harte: Stories of the Early West
by Bret Harte
from Platt and Munk Publishers
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Buffalo Bill's Life Story
by William F. Cody, Illustrated by N.C. Wyeth
1966 printing from Holt, Rinehart and Winston
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Buffalo Coat
by Carol Ryrie Brink
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C. S. Lewis: A Life
by Alister McGrath
from Tyndale House
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$24.99 $18.00 (1 in stock)
Caesar and Christ
Story of Civilization III
by Will Durant
from Simon and Schuster
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Call of Duty
Leaders in Action Series
by Steve Wilkins
from Cumberland House
Biography for 9th-Adult
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$16.95 $10.00 (1 in stock)
Captain Cook
by Alistair MacLean
from Doubleday & Company
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Carry a Big Stick
Leaders in Action Series
by George Grant
from Cumberland House
Biography for 9th-Adult
in Leaders in Action (Location: BIO-LIA)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Carver: A Life in Poems
by Marilyn Nelson
from Boyds Mill Press
for 7th-11th grade
2002 Newbery Honor Book, Coretta Scott King Honor Award
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$16.95
Castles and Fortresses
by Robin S. Oggins
from MetroBooks
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$7.00 (1 in stock)
Celts: Life, Myth, and Art
by Juliette Wood
from Stewart, Tabori, & Chang
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in Middle Ages (Location: HISW-MID)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Centennial History of the Civil War - 3 Volumes
by Bruce Catton
from Doubleday & Company
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in American Civil War (1860-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
Century
from Phaidon Press
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in 20th Century (Location: HISW-20)
$16.00 (1 in stock)
Cheer the Lonesome Traveller
by Leslie Alexander Lacy, illustrated by James Barkley
from Dial Press
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Chickamauga
by Horace Porter
from Konecky & Konecky
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Chief Joseph Country
by Bill Gulick
from Caxton Press
for 8th-Adult
in Native Americans (Location: HISA-19NAT)
Christopher Columbus
by Samuel Eliot Morison
from Dorset Press
for 8th-11th grade
in Oversized History Books (Location: HISW-OVER)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Civil War Battles
by Curt Johnson
1st edition from Crescent Books
for 7th-12th grade
in Oversized History Books (Location: HISW-OVER)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Civil War: 1861-1865
by David E. Roth
from Zigzag
for 9th-Adult
in Oversized History Books (Location: HISW-OVER)
$15.00 (1 in stock)
Classic Adventures
by Sir H. Rider Haggard
from New Orchard Editions
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
Cloister and the Hearth
by Charles Reade, illustrated by Lynd Ward
from Heritage Press
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in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Codfish Musket
by Agnes Hewes, illustrated by Armstrong Sperry
from Doubleday, Doran & Company Inc.
for 8th-12th grade
1937 Newbery Honor Book
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$45.00 (1 in stock)
Colonial Entrepreneur
by Olivia Coolidge, edited by Danny Smith
from Tilbury House Publishing
for 10th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
Colonizing the Planets and Stars
by Isaac Asimov
from Gareth Stevens Publishing
for 7th-12th grade
in Space Race & Exploration (Location: HISA-20SPR)
Colosseum
by Peter Quennell
from Newsweek Books
for 7th-12th grade
in Clearance: History & Geography (Location: ZCLE-HIS)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Comes the Comrade!
by Alexandra Orme, translated from the Polish by M.A. Michael and L. Meyer
from William Morrow & Company
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Commodore Hornblower
by C. S. Forester
1st edition from Little, Brown & Company
for 9th-12th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Complete Maus
by Art Spiegelman
from Pantheon Books
for 10th-Adult
in Comic Books & Graphic Novels (Location: FIC-COMIC)
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Mark Twain
from Reader's Digest
Social Satire/Comedy for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Constantine the Great
by Michael Grant
from History Book Club
for 8th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Constitution of the United States of America
by Founding Fathers
from Applewood Books
Primary Source Documents for 9th-Adult
in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
$9.95
Cortez & the Conquest of Mexico
by Bernal Diaz del Castillo
from William R. Scott Inc.
for 9th-12th grade
in 17th Century Literature (Location: LIT4-17)
Cradle of Civilization
by Samuel Noah Kramer
from Time-Life Books
for 9th-Adult
in Great Ages of Man (Location: ADU-HISGAM)
Crusades
by Michael Paine
from Chartwell Books
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
D-Day: Operation Overlord
from Smithmark Publishers
for 8th-Adult
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