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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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Active Filters: 4th grade (Ages 9-10), Hardcover, In-Stock Books & Materials
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
in Oversized History Books (Location: HISW-OVER)
$12.00 (2 in stock)
Art for Children: Renaissance
Art for Children
by Lillo Canto
from Chelsea House Publishing
Art Appreciation for 4th-6th grade
in Renaissance & Reformation (Location: HISW-REN)
$20.00 $9.00 (1 in stock)
Art of the Southeastern Indians
by Shirley Glubok
from Macmillan
for 3rd-6th grade
in Native Americans (Location: HISA-19NAT)
$4.00 (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)
Bach's Goldberg Variations
by Anna Harwell Celenza & JoAnn E. Kitchel
from Charlesbridge
Biography for 3rd-6th grade
in Music Appreciation (Location: ELE-MUSAP)
$16.95
Benjamin Franklin
by R. Conrad Stein
from Rand McNally
Biography for 3rd-6th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$3.00 (2 in stock)
Blockade Runners and Ironclads
by Wallace B. Black
from Franklin Watts
for 3rd-5th grade
in American Civil War (1860-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Bravo! Brava!
by Anne Siberell
from Oxford University
for 3rd-8th grade
in Opera & Choral Music (Location: ELE-MUSOP)
$24.00 $12.00 (1 in stock)
Brother Hugo and the Bear
by Katy Beebe
from Eerdmans
for Kindergarten-4th grade
in Oversized Picture Books (Location: PIC-OVER)
$17.99
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)
Child's Introduction to Art
by Heather Alexander, illustrated by Meredith Hamilton
from Black Dog & Leventhal
for 3rd-6th grade
in Art History & Appreciation (Location: ELE-ARTHIS)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Child's Introduction to the Orchestra
by Robert Levine
First Revised Edition from Black Dog & Leventhal
in Music Appreciation (Location: ELE-MUSAP)
$19.99
Child's Introduction to the World
by Heather Alexander
from Black Dog & Leventhal
for 3rd-5th grade
in Introductory Geography (Location: GEO-INTRO)
$19.99
Children Just Like Me: Celebrations
by Anabel Kindersley, Barnabas Kindersley
from DK Publishing
for 3rd-5th grade
in Diversity & Multicultural Books (Location: HISMC-MUL)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Children of Foreign Lands
by Elizabeth F. McCrady, verses by Kate Cox Goddard, illustrated by Ninon Macknight
from Platt and Munk Publishers
for 2nd-5th grade
in Vintage Readers & Textbooks (Location: VIN-READ)
$20.00 (1 in stock)
Chopin
by George Ruttkay
from Hyperion Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in Music History (Location: ELE-MUSHIS)
$3.50 (1 in stock)
Daily Life in the Pilgrim Colony 1636
by Paul Erickson
from Clarion Books
for 3rd-5th grade
in Oversized History Books (Location: HISW-OVER)
$8.50 (1 in stock)
DK Eyewitness Visual Dictionary of Military Uniforms
DK Visual Dictionaries
from DK Publishing
for 3rd-6th grade
in Military & Weapon History (Location: HISV-MILIT)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
DK Eyewitness: Arms & Armor
DK Eyewitness Series
by Michele Byam
from DK Publishing
Military History for 4th-8th grade
in Military & Weapon History (Location: HISV-MILIT)
$16.99
DK Eyewitness: Battle
DK Eyewitness Series
by Richard Holmes
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
History Reference for 4th-8th grade
in Military & Weapon History (Location: HISV-MILIT)
$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
in Middle Ages (Location: HISW-MID)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
DK Super Cool Tech
from DK Publishing
for 3rd-6th grade
in Inventions & Discoveries (Location: SCI-INV)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Doctor Like Papa
by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock, Illustrated by James Bernardin
First Edition from HarperCollins
for 2nd-5th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Duke Ellington
by Andrea Davis Pinkney
1st edition from Hyperion/Madison Press
for 3rd-6th grade
1999 Caldecott Honor Book
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Eating the Plates
by Lucille Recht Penner
1st edition from Simon and Schuster
for 4th-8th grade
in Pilgrims at Plymouth (Location: HISA-17PIL)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Epidemic
by Brian Ward
from DK Publishing
for 4th-8th grade
in History of Medicine (Location: SCI-HIS)
$11.00 (1 in stock)
First Starry Night
by Joan Shaddox Isom
from Charlesbridge
for 4th-6th grade
in Art History & Appreciation (Location: ELE-ARTHIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Flight: A Panorama of Aviation
by Melvin B. Zisfein; illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker
from Pantheon Books
for 4th-6th grade
in Aviation History (Location: HISV-AVIA)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Food and Recipes of Westward Expansion
Cooking Throughout American History
by George Erdosh
1st edition from PowerKids Press
for 1st-4th grade
in Western Expansion (1800-1898) (Location: HISA-19WES)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
Girl Who Drew Butterflies
by Joyce Sidman
from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
for 3rd-8th grade
2019 Robert F. Sibert Medal winner
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$17.99
Go Figure! A Totally Cool Book About Numbers
by Johnny Ball
from DK Publishing
for 3rd-6th grade
in History of Science & Mathematics (Location: SCI-HIS)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
Gristmill
Historic Communities
by Bobbie Kalman
from Crabtree Publishing
for 3rd-8th grade
in Colonial America (1690-1765) (Location: HISA-17COL)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Haydn's Farewell Symphony
by Anna Harwell Celenza & JoAnn E. Kitchel
from Charlesbridge
Biography for 3rd-6th grade
in Music Appreciation (Location: ELE-MUSAP)
$16.95
Houses of Bark
by Bonnie Shemie
from Tundra Books (NY)
for 4th-6th grade
in Native Americans (Location: HISA-19NAT)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Houses of Snow, Skin and Bones
Native Dwellings: the Far North
by Bonnie Shemie
from Tundra Books (NY)
for 4th-6th grade
in Native Americans (Location: HISA-19NAT)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
How Artists See Feelings
by Colleen Carroll
1st Library Ed from Abbeville Press
for 4th-6th grade
in Art History & Appreciation (Location: ELE-ARTHIS)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
How Artists See the Elements
by Colleen Carroll
from Abbeville Press
for 4th-6th grade
in Art History & Appreciation (Location: ELE-ARTHIS)
$5.00 (2 in stock)
How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightning
by Rosalyn Schanzer
from HarperCollins
for 2nd-4th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
How Children Lived
by Chris Rice, Melanie Rice
for 3rd-5th grade
in Diversity & Multicultural Books (Location: HISMC-MUL)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
How We Travel
by James Franklin Chamberlain
from Macmillan
for 2nd-4th grade
in Vintage Readers & Textbooks (Location: VIN-READ)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Ideas That Changed the World: Transportation
by Philip Wilkinson and Michael Pollard, Illustrated by Robert Ingpen
from Chelsea House Publishing
for 4th-7th grade
in How Things Work (Location: SCIREF-HOW)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
If the World Were 100 People
by Jackie McCann, illustrated by Aaron Cushley
from Crown Books for Young Readers
for Kindergarten-6th grade
in Diversity & Multicultural Books (Location: HISMC-MUL)
$17.99
If the World Were a Village
by David J. Smith
1st edition from Kids Can Press
for Kindergarten-4th grade
in Diversity & Multicultural Books (Location: HISMC-MUL)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
If You Were There in 1492
by Barbara Brenner
1st ed from Bradbury Press
for 3rd-5th grade
in Age of Exploration (1450-1700) (Location: HISA-16EXP)
$6.00 (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)
Inventing the Future
by David Edward Sloane, Marfe Ferguson Delano
from National Geographic
for 4th-6th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Joke's on George
by Michael O. Tunnell; illustrated by Kathy Osborn
from Tambourine Books
for Preschool-4th grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Kingfisher Atlas of World History
by Simon Adams
Revised from Kingfisher
for 3rd-5th grade
in Historical & Cultural Atlases (Location: HISRF-ATLAS)
$17.50 (1 in stock)
Kings, Queens, Knights, & Jesters
by Lynn Edelman Schnurnberger
from Harper & Row
for 3rd-6th grade
in Middle Ages (Location: HISW-MID)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Leonardo da Vinci
by Norman V. Marshall
from Silver Burdett Press
for 2nd-5th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Leonardo: Beautiful Dreamer
by Robert Byrd
1st edition from Dutton Children's Books
for 3rd-5th grade
2004 NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Librarian Who Measured the Earth
by Kathryn Lasky
from Little, Brown & Company
Biography for 2nd-5th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$18.99 $12.00 (2 in stock)
Lindbergh
Classic Starts
by Torben Kuhlmann, Translated by David Henry Wilson
from NorthSouth
for 2nd-6th grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$19.95 $10.00 (1 in stock)
Lindbergh Alone
by Brendan Gill
from Harcourt, Brace & World
for 4th-9th grade
in Clearance: History & Geography (Location: ZCLE-HIS)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Lives of the Artists
by M. B. Goffstein
from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
for 3rd-8th grade
in Art History & Appreciation (Location: ELE-ARTHIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Man Makes His World
by Patrick Lynch
from Edward Arnold
for 2nd-5th grade
in Clearance: History & Geography (Location: ZCLE-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Maps
by Aleksandra Mizielinska, Daniel Mizielinski
from Big Picture Press
for 3rd-5th grade
in Introductory Geography (Location: GEO-INTRO)
$37.99
Marguerite Makes a Book
by Bruce Robertson
from J. Paul Getty Museum
Picture Books for 2nd-5th grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$19.95
Matisse: Painter of the Essential
Art for Children
by Yolande Baillet
from Chelsea House Publishing
for 3rd-6th grade
in Artists & Illustrators (Location: ELE-ARTISTS)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
Medical Technology: Inventing the Instruments
by Robert Mulcahy
from The Oliver Press, Inc.
for 4th-7th grade
in History of Medicine (Location: SCI-HIS)
$3.50 (1 in stock)
Metropolis
by Albert Lorenz
from Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
for 4th-6th grade
in Architecture and Sculpture (Location: ELE-ARC)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
Metropolitan Opera Guide
by Mary Ellis Peltz and Robert Lawrence, illustrated by Alexandre Serebriakoff
7th edition from Modern Library
in Vintage Nonfiction (Location: VIN-NFIC)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Mike and Dick on a Washington Apple Farm
The Farm Life Series
by Joan Liffring
from Follett Publishing Co.
for 2nd-5th grade
in Vintage Readers & Textbooks (Location: VIN-READ)
$16.00 (1 in stock)
Military Uniforms, 1686-1918
A Grosset All-Color Guide
by Rene North, illustrated by John Berry
from Grosset & Dunlap
in Vintage Nonfiction (Location: VIN-NFIC)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
My Favorite Songs
by Maria Trapp
from Veritas Press
for Kindergarten-Adult
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$17.00
Nibbling on Einstein's Brain
by Diane Swanson
from Annick Press
for 4th-8th grade
in Clearance: Science & Health (Location: ZCLE-SCI)
$5.00 (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)
Norman Rockwell: Storyteller with a Brush
by Beverly Gherman
from Atheneum
for 3rd-7th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
October 45
by Jean-Louis Besson, translated by Carol Volk
from Harcourt Brace Jovanich
for 2nd-6th grade
in WWII: European Theater (Location: HISA-20WW2E)
$8.00 (2 in stock)
Passport to the World
by Craig Froman
from Master Books
for 3rd-6th grade
in Diversity & Multicultural Books (Location: HISMC-MUL)
$13.59 $9.00 (1 in stock)
Pirates
by Nigel Cawthorne
from Chartwell Books
for 4th-8th grade
in Pirates (Location: HISV-PIRATE)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Portrait of a Farm Family
by Raymond Bial
from Houghton Mifflin
for 2nd-5th grade
in Food & Farming Around the World (Location: HISMC-FOOD)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Prairie Lotus
by Linda Sue Park
from Clarion Books
for 3rd-6th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$16.99
Rachel Carson
by Melissa Stewart
from Ferguson Publishing Company
for 3rd-6th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Red Baron
by Richard A. Boning, illustrated by Harry Schaare
from Dexter & Westbrook
for 3rd-6th grade
in World War I (1914-1919) (Location: HISA-20WW1)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Right Word
by Jen Bryant
from Eerdmans
for 1st-4th grade
2015 Caldecott Honor Book, 2015 Robert F. Sibert Medal winner
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$18.99
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
for 3rd-6th grade
in Art History & Appreciation (Location: ELE-ARTHIS)
$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
in Ships, Boats & Submarines (Location: HISV-SHIP)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Ships and Boats
by Chris Oxlade
from Shooting Star Press
for 4th-6th grade
in Ships, Boats & Submarines (Location: HISV-SHIP)
$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
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Signs, Letters, Words
by W. John Hackwell
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 4th-8th grade
in Archaeology (Location: HISRF-ARCH)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
So You Want To Be an Inventor?
by Judith St. George & David Small
from Philomel Books
for 4th-7th grade
in Inventions & Discoveries (Location: SCI-INV)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Songs to Grow On
by Beatrice Landeck, piano arrangements by Florence White, illustrated by David Stone Martin
from Edward B. Marks Music Corporation
for Kindergarten-6th grade
in Vintage Readers & Textbooks (Location: VIN-READ)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Steam Engine
Inventions That Changed Our Lives
by Beatrice Siegel
from Walker and Company
for 3rd-6th grade
in Inventions & Discoveries (Location: SCI-INV)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Stephen Biesty's Cross-Sections: Man-of-War
by Stephen Biesty
from DK Publishing
for 1st-4th grade
in Oversized History Books (Location: HISW-OVER)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Story of Science
by Anna Claybourne, illustrated by Adam Larkum
from Usborne
for 3rd-6th grade
in History of Science & Mathematics (Location: SCI-HIS)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Story of Ships
by Frank O. Braynard, paintings by Fouille
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 3rd-6th grade
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Thaddeus Lowe: America's One-Man Air Corps
by Mary Hoehling
from Kingston House
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
The Amish
by Doris Faber, Illustrated by Michael E. Erkel
from Doubleday & Company
for 2nd-4th grade
in Cultural History (Location: HISMC-CUL)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Thomas Harriot
by Ralph Staiger
1st edition from Clarion Books
for 4th-6th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$7.50 (2 in stock)
To Fly
by Wendie C. Old, illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker
from Clarion Books
for 4th-6th grade
2003 NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book
in Aviation History (Location: HISV-AVIA)
$17.99
Tomatoes, Potatoes, Corn, and Beans
by Sylvia A. Johnson
1st edition from Atheneum
for 3rd-7th grade
in Food & Farming Around the World (Location: HISMC-FOOD)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Tracing Our Japanese Roots
by Gary Kawaguchi
from Avalon Travel Publishing
for 3rd-6th grade
in Clearance: History & Geography (Location: ZCLE-HIS)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Ultimate Teddy Bear Book
by Pauline Cockrill
from DK Publishing
for 4th-6th grade
in Games & Toys (Location: FUN-GAME)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
UNICEF's Festival Book
by Judith Spiegelman, illustrated by Audrey Preissler
from UNICEF
for 2nd-5th grade
in Vintage Nonfiction (Location: VIN-NFIC)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Usborne Children's Book of Art
by Rosie Dickins
from Scholastic Press
for 4th-6th grade
in Art History & Appreciation (Location: ELE-ARTHIS)
$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 History of Science in 100 Pictures
by Abigail Wheatley, illustrated by Ian McNee
from Usborne
for 2nd-5th grade
in History of Science & Mathematics (Location: SCI-HIS)
$5.40 (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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