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.

Did you find this review helpful?
173 Items found Print
Active Filters: Adult, Hardcover, In-Stock Books & Materials
102 Favorite Paintings By Norman Rockwell
by Norman Rockwell
from Crown Publishers
for 7th-Adult
in Art History & Appreciation (Location: ELE-ARTHIS)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
Air Forces of the World
by Sue Butterworth, editor
from Chartwell Books
for 9th-Adult
in Aviation History (Location: HISV-AVIA)
$18.00 (1 in stock)
Alchemy, the Ancient Science
by Neil Powell
from Doubleday & Company
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
All Hands Aloft!
by Lou A. Schmitt
from Howell-North
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
All Shook Up
Pivotal Moments in American History
by Glenn C. Altschuler
from Oxford University
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
America in the Air War
by Edward Jablonski
from Time-Life Books
for 9th-Adult
in Aviation History (Location: HISV-AVIA)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
American Children Through Their Books
by Sister Monica Kiefer
1970 printing from University of Pennsylvania Press
for Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
American Fishermen
by Albert Cook Church (photography), text by James B. Connolly
from Bonanza Books
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
American Heritage History of the Indian Wars
by Robert M. Utley, Wilcomb E. Washburn
Revised from American Heritage Publishing Co.
for 6th-Adult
in Oversized History Books (Location: HISW-OVER)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
American Sailing Coasters of the North Atlantic
by Paul C. Morris, foreword by Edouard Stackpole
1979 Reprint from Bonanza Books
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
American Ship Models and How to Build Them
by V. R. Grimwood, foreword by Howard I. Chapelle
from Bonanza Books
for 9th-Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Apollo on the Moon
by Henry S. F. Cooper, Jr.
from Dial Press
for 6th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Art and Artists of Russia
by Richard Hare
from Methuen
for Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$15.00 (1 in stock)
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
World's Greatest Literature
by Benjamin Franklin
from Spencer Press
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Baby Blessing
by Welleran Poltarnees
from Laughing Elephant
for Kindergarten-Adult
in Art History & Appreciation (Location: ELE-ARTHIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Beatles vs The Rolling Stones
by Jim Derogatis and Greg Kot
from Voyageur Press
for 9th-Adult
in Music History (Location: ELE-MUSHIS)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Beechcraft: Pursuit of Perfection
by Edward H. Phillips
from Flying Books
for Adult
in Aviation History (Location: HISV-AVIA)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Benjamin Franklin
by Carl Van Doren
from Library of America
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Best Known Gilbert & Sullivan Operas and Bab Ballads
by William Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan
from Halcyon House
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci
by Romola Anderson, R. C. Anderson
1st edition from Henry Holt and Company
for 9th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$19.99
Blow Ye Winds Westerly
by Elizabeth Gemming
1st edition from Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.
for 9th-Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Boatbuilding
by Howard I. Chapelle
from W. W. Norton and Co.
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$15.00 (1 in stock)
British and European Combat Aircraft
Combat Aircraft Library
by Paul A. Jackson
from Crescent Books
for Adult
in Aviation History (Location: HISV-AVIA)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Carl Larsson's A Home
by Carl Larsson and Lennart Rudstrom
from G.P. Putnam's Sons
for 3rd-Adult
in Art History & Appreciation (Location: ELE-ARTHIS)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Chapman Piloting
by Elbert S. Maloney
57th edition from Hearst Marine Books
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Chord of Steel
by Thomas B. Costain
from Doubleday & Company
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Clear for Action
by Foster Hailey and Milton Lancelot
Printing D from Bonanza Books
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Clipper Ships
by David R. MacGregor
from Argus Books
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Cry from the Earth
by John Bierhorst
from Four Winds Press
for 6th-Adult
in Native Americans (Location: HISA-19NAT)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Decorative Arts of the Mariner
by Gervis Frere-Cook (editor)
from Little, Brown & Company
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Deep-Water Sail
by Harold A. Underhill
from Brown, Son & Ferguson, Ltd.
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$18.00 (1 in stock)
Destroyers for Great Britain
by Arnold Hague
Revised & Expanded from Naval Institute Press
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Dictionary of Cultural Literacy
by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, James Trefil
2nd edition from Houghton Mifflin
for 7th-Adult
in Core Knowledge (Location: HSR-CORE)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Dictionary of Cultural Literacy
by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, James Trefil
from Houghton Mifflin
for 7th-Adult
in Core Knowledge (Location: HSR-CORE)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Disasters at Sea
by Milton H. Watson, foreword by Frank O. Braynard
from Patrick Stephens
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Discovery
by John K. Terres
First Ediition from J.B. Lippincott Co.
for 9th-Adult
in Biography Anthologies (Location: BIO-ANTH)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Dynamite Johnny O'Brien
by Milton A. Dalby
from Lowman & Hanford Co.
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$25.00 (1 in stock)
Echoes of the Whistle
by Gerald Rushton, introduction by Leonard G. McCann
from Douglas & McIntyre, Limited
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Einstein's Universe
by Nigel Calder
from Viking Press
for Adult
in History of Science & Mathematics (Location: SCI-HIS)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Encyclopedia of Science and Technology
by James Trefil
from Routledge
for 7th-Adult
in Science Reference (Location: SCIREF)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
English Children's Costume
1965 Reprint from A & C Black Ltd.
for 6th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$25.00 (1 in stock)
English Weapons & Warfare 449-1660
from Barnes & Noble
for 5th-Adult
in Military & Weapon History (Location: HISV-MILIT)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
Experts' Book of Boating
by Ruth Brindze (editor), illustrated by Fred Wellbrock
from Prentice Hall
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Flying Combat Aircraft of the USAAF-USAF
by Robin Higham and Abigail Siddall, editors
from Iowa State University Press
for Adult
in Military & Weapon History (Location: HISV-MILIT)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Flying Squadrons
by S. Paul Johnston
1st edition from Duell, Sloan and Pearce
for Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Foods of the Americas
from Ten Speed Press
for Adult
in Food & Farming Around the World (Location: HISMC-FOOD)
$7.20 (1 in stock)
Frederic Chopin
by Victor Seroff
from Macmillan
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$15.00 (1 in stock)
Full Fathom Five
by Frank H. Shaw
from Macmillan
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Getting There
by Suzanne Hilton
from Westminster Press
for 5th-Adult
in Things That Go (Location: SCI-TTGO)
$8.50 (1 in stock)
Gondoliers, or, The King of Barataria
by Gilbert & Sullivan, adapted by Robert Lawrence, illustrated by Sheilah Beckett
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 5th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$15.00 (1 in stock)
Great Artists - Great Composers: Portraits
from Amadeus Press
for 6th-Adult
in Biography Anthologies (Location: BIO-ANTH)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Great Scientists in Bite-Sized Chunks
by Nicola Chalton and Meredith MacArdle
from MJF Books
for 6th-Adult
in History of Science & Mathematics (Location: SCI-HIS)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Great Waters
by Creston Donald Ketchum
from Hutchinson & Co.
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
Guns Off Cape Ann
by Kenneth Poolman
from Evans Brothers Limited
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
High Flew the Falcons
by Herbert Molloy Mason, Jr.
1st edition from J.B. Lippincott Co.
for Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
History of Children's Costume
by Marion Sichel
from B.T. Batsford Ltd.
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Nonfiction (Location: VIN-NFIC)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
History of Invention
by Egon Larsen
Revised from J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd.
for Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
History of the American Sailing Navy
by Howard I. Chapelle
from Bonanza Books
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
History Sings
by Hazel Gertrude Kinscella
from University Publishing Company
American Music History for 7th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$18.00 (1 in stock)
Hostile Skies
by James J. Hudson
1st edition from Syracuse University Press
for Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
How the Merrimac Won
by R.W. Daly
from Thomas Crowell
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
Illuminated Page
by Janet Backhouse
from University of Toronto Press
for 7th-Adult
in Art History & Appreciation (Location: ELE-ARTHIS)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Illustrated History of Ships and Boats
by Lionel Casson
from Doubleday & Company
for 7th-Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Illustrated Wordsworth's Guide to the Lakes
by William Wordsworth, Edited by Peter Bicknell
from Congdon & Weed Inc.
for 9th-Adult
in Great Britain / England (Location: HISMC-BRIT)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
In Quest of the Sun
The Mariners Library #30
by Alain Gerbault
from Rupert Hart-Davis
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$15.00 (1 in stock)
In Search of Norman Rockwell's America
by Photography by Kevin Rivoli, Artwork by Norman Rockwell
from Howard Books
for 3rd-Adult
in Art History & Appreciation (Location: ELE-ARTHIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Joshua Barney
by Ralph D. Paine
from Century Co.
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
Kate Greenaway
by Rodney K. Engen
from Harmony
for 6th-Adult
in Art History & Appreciation (Location: ELE-ARTHIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Last Grain Race
by Eric Newby
1st Printing from Houghton Mifflin
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$32.00 (1 in stock)
Last Men Out
by Bob Drury & Tom Clavin
1st Printing from Free Press
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Leonardo da Vinci
by Richard McLanathan
from Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
for 8th-Adult
in Artists & Illustrators (Location: ELE-ARTISTS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Lexington Goes Down
by A. A. Hoehling
from Prentice Hall
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Liberty Ships
by John Gorley Bunker
from Naval Institute Press
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Life of Picasso Volume II
Book 2 of 4
by John Richardson with Marilyn McCully
First Edition 2nd Printing from Random House
for 10th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Life of the Book
by Hellmut Lehmann-Haupt, illustrated by Fritz Kredel
from Abelard - Schuman
for Adult
in History of Books & Language (Location: HISV-BOOK)
$15.00 (1 in stock)
Lifetime of Wisdom
by Joni Eareckson Tada
from Zondervan
Autobiographies & Memoirs for Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$6.00 (2 in stock)
Log of "Bob" Bartlett
by Captain Robert A. Bartlett
from G.P. Putnam's Sons
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$15.00 (1 in stock)
Lonely Sea and the Sky
by Francis Chichester
First American Edition from Coward McCann
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Long Ships: A Saga of the Viking Age
by Frans G. Bengtsson, translated from the Swedish by Michael Meyer
7th Printing from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 9th-Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$60.00 (1 in stock)
Longitude
by Dava Sobel
1st edition from Penguin Books
for 10th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Luftwaffe
1st edition from Time-Life Books
for 9th-Adult
in Aviation History (Location: HISV-AVIA)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Manual of Celestial Navigation
by Arthur A. Ageton
from D. Van Nostrand Co.
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$18.00 (1 in stock)
Mariner of the North
by George Palmer Putnam
from Duell, Sloan and Pearce
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$25.00 (1 in stock)
Mathew Brady
by James D. Horan
from Bonanza Books
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Maximum Effort
The 449th Bomb Group History #4
from 449th Bomb Group Assoc.
for Adult
in Aviation History (Location: HISV-AVIA)
$35.00 (1 in stock)
Medal of Honor
by Peter Collier
2nd edition from Artisan Publishers
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$16.00 (1 in stock)
Medley of Mast and Sail 2
by Alex A. Hurst
from Naval Institute Press
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Moon and Sixpence
Modern Library
by W. Somerset Maugham
from Heritage Press
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$25.00 (1 in stock)
Mustang at War
by Roger A. Freeman
from Doubleday & Company
for 9th-Adult
in Aviation History (Location: HISV-AVIA)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
My Favorite Songs
by Maria Trapp
from Veritas Press
for Kindergarten-Adult
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$17.00
My First Summer in the Sierra
by John Muir
from Gibbs M. Smith
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$16.95
Natural Way to Draw
by Kimon Nicolaides
from Houghton Mifflin
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Nonfiction (Location: VIN-NFIC)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Norman Rockwell Illustrator
by Arthur L. Guptill
from Watson-Guptill Publications
for Adult
in Art History & Appreciation (Location: ELE-ARTHIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Norman Rockwell's America
by Christopher Finch, Illustrated by Norman Rockwell
from Reader's Digest
for 3rd-Adult
in Artists & Illustrators (Location: ELE-ARTISTS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Nothing Like It in the World
by Stephen E. Ambrose
from Simon and Schuster
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Odyssey in Print
from Smithsonian Books
for 6th-Adult
in History of Books & Language (Location: HISV-BOOK)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Of Yachts and Men
by William Atkin, illustrations by Charles G. Davis, introduction by Charles F. Chapman
from Sheridan House
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$15.00 (1 in stock)
One Giant Leap
by Charles Pappas
from Lyons Press
for 9th-Adult
in Space Race & Exploration (Location: HISA-20SPR)
$13.00 (1 in stock)
Oregon Shipwrecks
by Don Marshall
1st edition from Binford & Mort Publishing
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Out of My Life and Thought
by Albert Schweitzer
Reprint from Henry Holt and Company
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
12