Cultural History

You'll often hear proponents of whole-book education methods talk about the benefit of learning history through literature. They aren't talking about the kind of history you might learn in a textbook—for them, knowing the dates of the Thirty Years' War or the name of the first prime minister of Australia isn't that important. The kind of history you'll learn in novels and diaries and essays is cultural history.

How people live, what they learn in school, the weapons they use, their religion, how they perceive their role in the world: these are all elements of culture that fiction and private documents reveal much better and more thoroughly than books simply detailing facts. Source documents are the product as much of the culture in which they're written, after all, as they are the result of the authors' own invention.

Books simply about the customs and daily life of a people group do have their place, too. You might not have as intimate a portrait of Victorian England after reading What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew as you would after reading Great Expectations, but you'll learn plenty. Sometimes you just need the straightforward facts, and at times like those novels are not your friends.

The real question for many, however, isn't how do I learn about different cultures?, but WHY should I learn about different cultures? Well, there's no law saying you have to, but aside from the fun you can have doing so, learning about foreign or lost cultures is one way to better understand your own place in the grand scheme of things.

It's not that the Chinese New Year festival will shed any great light on your own situation, but the deeper you study the cultural contexts around the globe, the more you realize how similar people really are. Understanding connections is one of the great advantages of a well-rounded education; the connections between people a solid grounding in cultural history can offer are especially poignant.

Of course, reading about the origins of your own culture will help you understand why you do things the way you do, why you think the way you do, why the people around you are the way they are. As Christians, this knowledge can help us share the Gospel easier than if we knew nothing of the background of the people we try to reach, and that is the one reason for studying cultural history that trumps all the others.

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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Accidents May Happen
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Adventures of Munford: Munford Meets Robert Fulton
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Along Came Galileo
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Always Inventing
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Amazing Leonardo da Vinci Inventions You Can Build Yourself
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Amazing Life of Benjamin Franklin
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Amelia to Zora
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American History for Young Students I
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American History Stories Volume 1
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Ancient Celts: Archaeology Unlocks the Secrets of the Celts' Past
National Geographic Investigates
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Antarctica: Escape from Disaster
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Antique Airplanes - Coloring Book
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Aristotle Leads the Way: Teacher's Quest Guide
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Armstrong
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Art and Civilization: Ancient Rome
Art and Civilization
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Art for Children: Renaissance
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Art of the Southeastern Indians
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Art of the Spanish in the United States and Puerto Rico
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Art of the Woodland Indians
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Art Smart: Spot the Details and Find Out the Facts
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Atlas of North American Exploration
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Baby Blessing
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Once Upon a Masterpiece
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Bell and the Science of the Telephone
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Benjamin Franklin
Heroes of History
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Benjamin Franklin
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Benjamin Franklin's Adventures With Electricity
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Benjamin Franklin: Printer, Scientist, Author, and Diplomat
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Benjamin Franklin: Young Printer
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Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin
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Berean Builders Science Through History - Elementary Boxed Set
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BFB Art Appreciation Family Study Pack
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Big Golden Book of Christopher Columbus and Other Early Adventurers
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Bill Peet
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Blazing West: The Journal of Augustus Pelletier
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Blockade Runners and Ironclads
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Book of Marvels: Marvels of the Occident
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Book of Marvels: Marvels of the Orient
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Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Young Reader's Edition)
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Captain's Dog
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Changing Times: Health & Disease
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Chasing Vermeer
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Mystery & Suspense for 4th-6th grade
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Child's Geography Volume V (old)
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Child's Introduction to the Orchestra
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