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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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55 Items found Print
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Active Filters: 6th grade (Ages 11-12), Library Binding, In-Stock Books & Materials
Ancient Romans
People of the Ancient World
by Allison Lassieur
from Franklin Watts
for 4th-8th grade
in Ancient Rome (Location: HISW-ANRO)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
Art of the Spanish in the United States and Puerto Rico
by Shirley Glubok
from Macmillan
for 2nd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Art of the Woodland Indians
by Shirley Glubok
from Macmillan
for 4th-6th grade
in Native Americans (Location: HISA-19NAT)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Benjamin Franklin: Printer, Scientist, Author, and Diplomat
Spirit of America: Our People
by Ann Heinrichs
from Child's World
for 3rd-6th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Biography of Tea
by Carrie Gleason
from Crabtree Publishing
for 3rd-6th grade
in Food & Farming Around the World (Location: HISMC-FOOD)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Christopher Columbus and the Discovery of the New World
by Jim Gallagher
from Chelsea House Publishing
for 4th-6th grade
in Age of Exploration (1450-1700) (Location: HISA-16EXP)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Clara Barton: Civil War Nurse
Historical American Biographies
by Nancy Whitelaw
from Enslow
for 3rd-6th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Closer Look at Vikings
from Hamish Hamilton
for 3rd-6th grade
in Middle Ages (Location: HISW-MID)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
Discoverer: The Story of a Satellite
by Michael Chester and Saunders B. Kramer
from G.P. Putnam's Sons
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Science & Math (Location: VIN-SCI)
$18.00 (1 in stock)
Explorers of the Arctic and Antarctic
by Edward F. Dolan
from Crowell-Collier
for 4th-8th grade
in 20th Century Exploration (Location: HISW-20EXP)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Ferdinand Magellan
by Milton Meltzer
from Benchmark Books
for 4th-6th grade
in Age of Exploration (1450-1700) (Location: HISA-16EXP)
$6.50 (1 in stock)
Ferdinand Magellan and the Discovery of the World Ocean
by Rebecca Stefoff
from Chelsea House Publishing
for 4th-6th grade
in Clearance: Biographies (Location: ZCLE-BIO)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Ferdinand Magellan and the First Voyage Around the World
by Jim Gallagher
from Chelsea House Publishing
for 4th-6th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$3.00 (2 in stock)
Francisco Coronado and the Exploration of the American Southwest
Explorers of New Worlds
by Hal Marcovitz
from Chelsea House Publishing
for 4th-6th grade
in Age of Exploration (1450-1700) (Location: HISA-16EXP)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Future in Space
Isaac Asimov's Library of the Universe
by Isaac Asimov
from Gareth Stevens Publishing
for 3rd-6th grade
in Space Race & Exploration (Location: HISA-20SPR)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Gasoline Buggy of the Duryea Brothers
by Robert B. Jackson
from Henry Z. Walck, Inc.
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
Giotto
Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists
by Mike Venezia
from Children's Press
for 4th-6th grade
in Artists & Illustrators (Location: ELE-ARTISTS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Going to War in the 19th Century
Armies of the Past
by Craig Dodd
from Franklin Watts
for 3rd-6th grade
in Military & Weapon History (Location: HISV-MILIT)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Henry Hudson
Library of Explorers and Exploration
by Josepha Sherman
from Rosen Central
for 4th-6th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Hernando de Soto and the Exploration of Florida
by Jim Gallagher
from Chelsea House Publishing
for 4th-6th grade
in Age of Exploration (1450-1700) (Location: HISA-16EXP)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Horse in Art
by Ruth Zuelke
from Lerner Publishing Group
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Nonfiction (Location: VIN-NFIC)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
How and Why Wonder Book of the Polar Regions
by Irving Robbin, illustrated by Shannon Stirnweis
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 3rd-6th grade
in How and Why Wonder Books (Location: VIN-H&W)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
How Men Discovered the World
by Hans R. Hecke, illustrated by Nikolaus Plump, freely translated by Moya Gillespie
from Lerner Publishing Group
for 3rd-6th grade
in Age of Exploration (1450-1700) (Location: HISA-16EXP)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
How People Lived in Ancient Egypt
How People Lived
by Jane Bingham
from PowerKids Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in Ancient Egypt (Location: HISW-ANEG)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Illustrated Guide to Sailing Ships
by Christopher Chant
Library ed from Marshall Cavendish Education
for 4th-8th grade
in Ships, Boats & Submarines (Location: HISV-SHIP)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
Invaders
by Martin Windrow
from ARCO
for 3rd-8th grade
in Military & Weapon History (Location: HISV-MILIT)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Isaac Newton and Gravity
by Steve Parker
from Chelsea House Publishing
for 4th-6th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Juan Ponce de Leon and the Search for the Fountain of Youth
by Daniel E. Harmon
from Chelsea House Publishing
for 4th-6th grade
in Age of Exploration (1450-1700) (Location: HISA-16EXP)
$6.00 (2 in stock)
Leif Eriksson
by Cynthia Fitterer Klingel, Robert B. Noyed
from Child's World
for 4th-6th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$3.50 (1 in stock)
Lewis and Clark Expedition
We the People
by Patricia Ryon Quiri
from Compass Point Books
for 4th-6th grade
in Lewis & Clark Expedition (1801-1803) (Location: HISA-19L&C)
$3.50 (1 in stock)
Lighthouses of America
by Mina Lewiton, Illustrated by Howard Simon
from E.M. Hale and Company
for 4th-7th grade
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$12.50 (1 in stock)
Magellan
by Michael Burgan
from Compass Point Books
for 5th-12th grade
in Age of Exploration (1450-1700) (Location: HISA-16EXP)
$6.50 (1 in stock)
Magic of Spices
by E. Joseph Dreany
from G.P. Putnam's Sons
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$25.00 (1 in stock)
Miners and Drillers
by Tony Hyland
from Smart Apple Media
for 4th-8th grade
in Clearance: History & Geography (Location: ZCLE-HIS)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Pizarro, Orellana, and the Exploration of the Amazon
by Brendon Bernhard
from Chelsea House Publishing
for 4th-6th grade
in Clearance: History & Geography (Location: ZCLE-HIS)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Printers
Colonial American Craftsmen
by Leonard Everett Fisher
from Franklin Watts
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Renaissance Art
by Stuart A. Kallen
from Lucent Press
for 4th-8th grade
in Art History & Appreciation (Location: ELE-ARTHIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Risking it All
Moments in American History
by Anne Souby
from Steck-Vaughn Company
for 4th-6th grade
in Biography Anthologies (Location: BIO-ANTH)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
Science in Colonial America
by Brendan January
from Children's Press
for 4th-6th grade
in History of Science & Mathematics (Location: SCI-HIS)
$7.00 (2 in stock)
Sir Francis Drake
Library of Explorers and Exploration
by Joy Paige
1st edition from Rosen Central
for 4th-6th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Story of Two Years Before the Mast
by Frank L. Beals, illustrated by E.E. King, original story by Richard H. Dana Jr.
Adapted & Retold from Benj. H. Sanborn & Co.
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Surviving Peoples: Gypsies
by Thomas Acton
from Silver Burdett Press
for 4th-8th grade
in Diversity & Multicultural Books (Location: HISMC-MUL)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Taller Than Bandai Mountain
by Dan D'Amelio, illustrated by Fred Banbery
from Viking Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$20.00 (1 in stock)
They Put Out to Sea: The Story of the Map
by Roger Duvoisin
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$68.00 (1 in stock)
Traveling the Missouri
from Silver Burdett Press
for 4th-Adult
in Lewis & Clark Expedition (1801-1803) (Location: HISA-19L&C)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
True Story of Albert Einstein
by Ruth L. Oldfield
from Children's Press
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Ulysses S. Grant and the Strategy of Victory
History of the Civil War
by Laura Anne Rickarby
from Silver Burdett Press
for 4th-9th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Under Drake's Flag
by G. A. Henty
from Robinson Curriculum
Historical Fiction for 6th-10th grade
in G. A. Henty Books (Location: FIC-HEN)
$20.00
Vasco de Gama and the Portuguese Explorers
by Jim Gallagher
from Chelsea House Publishing
for 4th-6th grade
in Age of Exploration (1450-1700) (Location: HISA-16EXP)
$5.00 (2 in stock)
Viva Mexico! The Fiestas
by George Ancona
from Marshall Cavendish Education
for 2nd-6th grade
in Latin America (Location: HISMC-LAT)
$2.50 (1 in stock)
William Harvey
by Lisa Yount
from Enslow
for 3rd-6th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
World at War: Fighter Planes
by R. Conrad Stein
from Children's Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in World War II (1939-1945) (Location: HISA-20WW2)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
World's Great Explorers: Alexander the Great
by Maureen Ash
from Children's Press
for 4th-8th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Wright Brothers
by Shelia Wyborny
1st edition from KidHaven Press
for 4th-6th grade
in Clearance: History & Geography (Location: ZCLE-HIS)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
You Are What You Wear
by Helen Whitty
from Chelsea House Publishing
for 3rd-6th grade
in Clearance: History & Geography (Location: ZCLE-HIS)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
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