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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112 Items found Print
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American Heritage History of the Indian Wars
by Robert M. Utley, Wilcomb E. Washburn
Revised from American Heritage Publishing Co.
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Apollo on the Moon
by Henry S. F. Cooper, Jr.
from Dial Press
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Art and Civilization: Ancient Rome
Art and Civilization
by Giovanni Di Pasquale & Matilde Bardi
from Peter Bedrick Books
Roman History Reference for 4th-6th grade
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Art for Children: Renaissance
Art for Children
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from Chelsea House Publishing
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Art of the Southeastern Indians
by Shirley Glubok
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Baby Blessing
by Welleran Poltarnees
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Bach's Goldberg Variations
by Anna Harwell Celenza & JoAnn E. Kitchel
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Biography for 3rd-6th grade
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$16.95
Battles of the Ancient World: 1285 BC ~ AD 451
by Kelly Devries, et. al
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Benjamin Franklin
by R. Conrad Stein
from Rand McNally
Biography for 3rd-6th grade
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Bomb
by Steve Sheinkin
First Edition from Flash Point
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2013 Newbery Honor Book, 2013 Robert F. Sibert Medal winner
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Bravo! Brava!
by Anne Siberell
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Captain Edward L. Beach: Around the World Under Water
by Beril Becker
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Carl Larsson's A Home
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Charles A. Lindbergh
by James Cross Giblin
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Biography for 5th-8th grade
1998 NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book
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Child's Introduction to Art
by Heather Alexander, illustrated by Meredith Hamilton
from Black Dog & Leventhal
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Child's Introduction to the Orchestra
by Robert Levine
First Revised Edition from Black Dog & Leventhal
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$19.99
Chopin
by George Ruttkay
from Hyperion Press
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$3.50 (1 in stock)
Cry from the Earth
by John Bierhorst
from Four Winds Press
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
DK Eyewitness Visual Dictionary of Military Uniforms
DK Visual Dictionaries
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DK Eyewitness: Arms & Armor
DK Eyewitness Series
by Michele Byam
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Military History for 4th-8th grade
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$16.99
DK Eyewitness: Battle
DK Eyewitness Series
by Richard Holmes
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
History Reference for 4th-8th grade
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
DK Eyewitness: Knight
DK Eyewitness Series
by Christopher Gravett
from DK Publishing
Middle Ages HIstory Reference for 4th-8th grade
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DK Super Cool Tech
from DK Publishing
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Duke Ellington
by Andrea Davis Pinkney
1st edition from Hyperion/Madison Press
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1999 Caldecott Honor Book
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Eating the Plates
by Lucille Recht Penner
1st edition from Simon and Schuster
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English Children's Costume
1965 Reprint from A & C Black Ltd.
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English Weapons & Warfare 449-1660
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Epidemic
by Brian Ward
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First Houses: Native American Homes and Sacred Structures
by Jean Guard Monroe, Ray A. Williamson, illustrated by Susan Johnston Carlson
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First Starry Night
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Flight: A Panorama of Aviation
by Melvin B. Zisfein; illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker
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Forts of Canada
by Leslie F. Hannon
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From the Eagle's Wing
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Genius
by Marfe Ferguson Delano
from National Geographic
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2006 NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book
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Getting There
by Suzanne Hilton
from Westminster Press
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Girl Who Drew Butterflies
by Joyce Sidman
from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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2019 Robert F. Sibert Medal winner
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$17.99
Go Figure! A Totally Cool Book About Numbers
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Gondoliers, or, The King of Barataria
by Gilbert & Sullivan, adapted by Robert Lawrence, illustrated by Sheilah Beckett
from Grosset & Dunlap
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Great Artists - Great Composers: Portraits
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Great Scientists in Bite-Sized Chunks
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Gristmill
Historic Communities
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from Crabtree Publishing
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Haydn's Farewell Symphony
by Anna Harwell Celenza & JoAnn E. Kitchel
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Biography for 3rd-6th grade
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Houses of Bark
by Bonnie Shemie
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Houses of Snow, Skin and Bones
Native Dwellings: the Far North
by Bonnie Shemie
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How Artists See Feelings
by Colleen Carroll
1st Library Ed from Abbeville Press
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How Artists See the Elements
by Colleen Carroll
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I, Juan de Pareja
by Elizabeth Borton de Treviño
1994 Printing from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Realistic Fiction/Slavery for 5th-8th grade
1966 Newbery Medal winner
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
Ideas That Changed the World: Transportation
by Philip Wilkinson and Michael Pollard, Illustrated by Robert Ingpen
from Chelsea House Publishing
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
If the World Were 100 People
by Jackie McCann, illustrated by Aaron Cushley
from Crown Books for Young Readers
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$17.99
In Search of Norman Rockwell's America
by Photography by Kevin Rivoli, Artwork by Norman Rockwell
from Howard Books
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Inventing the Future
by David Edward Sloane, Marfe Ferguson Delano
from National Geographic
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Jane's Pocket Guide Advanced Tactical Fighters
by Jeremy Flack
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Kate Greenaway
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Kings, Queens, Knights, & Jesters
by Lynn Edelman Schnurnberger
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Lindbergh
Classic Starts
by Torben Kuhlmann, Translated by David Henry Wilson
from NorthSouth
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Lindbergh Alone
by Brendan Gill
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Lives of the Artists
by M. B. Goffstein
from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Matisse: Painter of the Essential
Art for Children
by Yolande Baillet
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Medical Technology: Inventing the Instruments
by Robert Mulcahy
from The Oliver Press, Inc.
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Men of Science and Invention
by Michael Blow
from American Heritage Publishing Co.
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Men-of-War
Seafarers
by David Howarth
1st edition from Time-Life Books
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Metropolis
by Albert Lorenz
from Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
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$7.00 (1 in stock)
My Favorite Songs
by Maria Trapp
from Veritas Press
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$17.00
Mysterious Voyage of Captain Kidd
Landmark #122
by A.B.C. Whipple
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Nibbling on Einstein's Brain
by Diane Swanson
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Norman Rockwell's America
by Christopher Finch, Illustrated by Norman Rockwell
from Reader's Digest
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Norman Rockwell: Storyteller with a Brush
by Beverly Gherman
from Atheneum
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
October 45
by Jean-Louis Besson, translated by Carol Volk
from Harcourt Brace Jovanich
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$8.00 (2 in stock)
Odyssey in Print
from Smithsonian Books
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Passport to the World
by Craig Froman
from Master Books
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Pirates
by Nigel Cawthorne
from Chartwell Books
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Prairie Lotus
by Linda Sue Park
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$16.99
Rachel Carson
by Melissa Stewart
from Ferguson Publishing Company
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Red Baron
by Richard A. Boning, illustrated by Harry Schaare
from Dexter & Westbrook
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Rousseu: Still Voyages
Art For Children
by Didier Grosjean and Claudine Roland, illustrated by Francine De Boeck, translated by John Goodman
from Chelsea House Publishing
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Sea Clocks: The Story of Longitude
by Louise Borden
1st edition from Margaret K. McElderry Books
for 4th-8th grade
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
Seafaring America
by Alexander Laing
from McGraw-Hill
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in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Ships and Boats
by Chris Oxlade
from Shooting Star Press
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$5.00 (2 in stock)
Ships at Work
by Mary Elting; illustrated by Manning De V. Lee
from Harvey House, Inc., Publishers
for 4th-6th grade
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$14.00 (1 in stock)
Signs, Letters, Words
by W. John Hackwell
from Charles Scribner's Sons
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
So You Want To Be an Inventor?
by Judith St. George & David Small
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Songs to Grow On
by Beatrice Landeck, piano arrangements by Florence White, illustrated by David Stone Martin
from Edward B. Marks Music Corporation
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Steam Engine
Inventions That Changed Our Lives
by Beatrice Siegel
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Story of Science
by Anna Claybourne, illustrated by Adam Larkum
from Usborne
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$9.00 (1 in stock)
Story of Ships
by Frank O. Braynard, paintings by Fouille
from Grosset & Dunlap
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Talking to the Sun
by Selected by Kenneth Koch and Kate Farrell
from Henry Holt and Company
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
Tchaikovsky Discovers America
by Esther Kalman
from Orchard Books
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$7.50 (1 in stock)
Thaddeus Lowe: America's One-Man Air Corps
by Mary Hoehling
from Kingston House
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The Arts
by Hendrik Willem Van Loon
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$12.00 (2 in stock)
Thomas Harriot
by Ralph Staiger
1st edition from Clarion Books
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$7.50 (2 in stock)
Timechart History of Aviation
from Lowe & B. Hould Publishers
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$9.00 (1 in stock)
To Fly
by Wendie C. Old, illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker
from Clarion Books
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2003 NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book
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$17.99
Tomatoes, Potatoes, Corn, and Beans
by Sylvia A. Johnson
1st edition from Atheneum
for 3rd-7th grade
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Tracing Our Japanese Roots
by Gary Kawaguchi
from Avalon Travel Publishing
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in Clearance: History & Geography (Location: ZCLE-HIS)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Trains
by John R. Day, illustrated by David A. Warner & Nigel W. Hearn
1989 Reprint from Treasure Press
for 6th-Adult
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Ultimate Teddy Bear Book
by Pauline Cockrill
from DK Publishing
for 4th-6th grade
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
Usborne Children's Book of Art
by Rosie Dickins
from Scholastic Press
for 4th-6th grade
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$7.50 (2 in stock)
Usborne Famous Composers Reference Book
by Anthony Marks
from Usborne
for 2nd-6th grade
in Music History (Location: ELE-MUSHIS)
$6.30 (1 in stock)
Usborne Introduction to Modern Art
by Rosie Dickins
from Scholastic Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in Art History & Appreciation (Location: ELE-ARTHIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Vincent Van Gogh
by Jan Greenberg, Sandra Jordan
from Delacorte Press
for 3rd-6th grade
2002 Robert F. Sibert Honor Book
in Artists & Illustrators (Location: ELE-ARTISTS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
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