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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132 Items found Print
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Abraham Lincoln & His Family - Paper Dolls
by Tom Tierney
from Dover Publications
for Preschool-3rd grade
in Dover Paper Dolls (Location: COL-DOLL)
$9.99
AIO Imagination Station Book #21
by Marianne Hering
from Focus on the Family
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$5.99
All the Children of the World
by Karen Mezek Leimert
First Edition from Nelsonword Publishing Group
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Amazing Life of Benjamin Franklin
by James Cross Giblin
from Scholastic Inc.
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2001 NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book
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Art Coloring Book
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Art Smart: Spot the Details and Find Out the Facts
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Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse
by Eric Carle
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Baby Blessing
by Welleran Poltarnees
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Beatrice's Goat
by Page McBrier
Reprint from Aladdin Paperbacks
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Beethoven's Heroic Symphony (Once Upon a Masterpiece)
from Charlesbridge
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$16.95
Boll Weevil
by Glen Rounds
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Brave Harriet
by Marissa Moss
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Brother Hugo and the Bear
by Katy Beebe
from Eerdmans
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$17.99
Camille and the Sunflowers
by Laurence Anholt
1st edition from Barron's
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$7.50 (1 in stock)
Camille Pissarro
by Alix Wood
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$3.00 (1 in stock)
Charles Darwin's Around-the-World Adventure
by Jennifer Thermes
from Abrams Books for Young Readers
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Child's Book of Art
by Lucy Micklethwait
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Child's Story of the Child's Book
by Raven
from F. A. Davis Company
for Kindergarten-2nd grade
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Children from Australia to Zimbabwe
by Anna Rhesa Versola, Maya Ajmera
Revised ed. from Charlesbridge
for 1st-3rd grade
in Diversity & Multicultural Books (Location: HISMC-MUL)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Children Just Like Me
by Anabel Kindersley, Barnabas Kindersley
from DK Publishing
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$19.99 $8.00 (1 in stock)
Christopher Columbus
by Elaine Murray Stone
500 Anv from Tyndale House
Biography for Preschool-3rd Grade
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City Book
by Lucille Corcos
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Civil War Artist
by Taylor Morrison
from HMH Books for Young Readers
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$3.00 (1 in stock)
Classical Acts and Facts Science Cards: Famous Scientists (old)
1st edition from Classical Conversations
for Kindergarten-8th grade
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Classical Acts and Facts Science Cards: Seeking to Know
2nd edition from Classical Conversations
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$23.99
Cloth Lullaby: The Woven Life of Louise Bourgeois
by Amy Novesky, illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault
from Abrams Books for Young Readers
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$7.00 (1 in stock)
Come Look With Me: Artist at Work
by R. Sarah Richardson
from Charlesbridge
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$16.95
Come Look with Me: Enjoying Art with Children
by Gladys S. Blizzard
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$12.00
Come Look With Me: Exploring Landscape Art With Children
by Gladys S. Blizzard
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$16.95
Day of Ahmed's Secret
by Florence Parry Heide, Judith Heide Gilliland
1st Mulberry ed from HarperCollins
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$7.99
Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velasquez
Art For Children
by Ernest Raboff
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$3.00 (1 in stock)
Discovering Great Artists
by MaryAnn F. Kohl & Kim Solga
2nd edition from Chicago Review Press
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$19.99
Discovering Great Artists (old)
by MaryAnn F. Kohl & Kim Solga
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$4.00 (2 in stock)
Drum Dream Girl
by Margarita Engle, illustrated by Rafael Lopez
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$3.00 (1 in stock)
Edward MacDowell and His Cabin in the Pines
by Opal Wheeler and Sybil Deucher
from Zeezok Publishing
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$13.95
Elizabeth Fry
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$11.99
Etcher's Studio
by Arthur Geisert
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Everybody Cooks Rice
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Eye for Color
by Natasha Wing, Art by Julia Breckenreid
from Henry Holt and Company
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Families Around the World
by Jo E. Moore
from Evan-Moor Educational Publishers
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$3.00 (1 in stock)
Famous Children: Haydn
by Ann Rachlin
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$3.50 (1 in stock)
Famous Children: Mozart
by Ann Rachlin
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Famous Children: Picasso
by Tony Hart, illustrated by Susan Hellard
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Farmhouse
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from Little, Brown & Company
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$18.99
Flight
by Robert Burleigh; illustrated by Mike Wimmer
from Philomel Books
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1992 NCTE Orbis Pictus Award
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Food and Recipes of Westward Expansion
Cooking Throughout American History
by George Erdosh
1st edition from PowerKids Press
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$4.50 (1 in stock)
George Washington Carver
by Carol Greene
from Children's Press
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Girl with a Watering Can
by Ewa Zadrzynska, illustrated by Arnold Skolnick
from Chameleon Books, Inc.
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Glorious Flight
by Martin & Alice Provensen
from Puffin Books
Historical Non-Fiction/Picture Books for 1st-3rd grade
1984 Caldecott Medal winner
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$8.99 $5.00 (1 in stock)
Go, Go, Go! Kids on the Move
by Stephen R. Swinburne
for Kindergarten-2nd grade
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$5.50 (4 in stock)
God’s Very Good Idea
by Trillia Newbell and Catalina Echeverri
from Good Book Company
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$16.99
Gonna Sing My Head Off
by Kathleen Krull
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
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$3.00 (1 in stock)
Gonna Sing My Head Off
by Kathleen Krull, illustrated by Allen Garns
First Printing from Scholastic Reference
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Hairdo!
by Ruth Freeman Swain, illustrated by Cat Bowman Smith
from Holiday House
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Henry Ford
by Dina El Nabli
from HarperCollins
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$2.50 (1 in stock)
Hieroglyphs
by Joyce Milton, illustrated by Charles Micucci
from Grosset & Dunlap
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Horn for Louis
Stepping Stones
by Eric A. Kimmel
from Penguin Random House
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$3.00 (1 in stock)
Hot Peas & Barley-O - Book & CD
by Susan Brumfield
from Hal Leonard Corp
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How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World
by Marjorie Priceman
from Dragonfly Books
Humor for 1st-3rd grade
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$8.99
I Spy a Freight Train: Transportation in Art
by Lucy Micklethwait
from Greenwillow Books
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If the World Were 100 People
by Jackie McCann, illustrated by Aaron Cushley
from Crown Books for Young Readers
for Kindergarten-6th grade
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$17.99
If the World Were a Village
by David J. Smith
1st edition from Kids Can Press
for Kindergarten-4th grade
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
If You Were Me and Lived In... Australia
A Child's Introduction to Culture around the World Volume 8
by Carole P. Roman
from CreateSpace
for 1st-3rd grade
in Australia & Oceania (Location: HISMC-AU)
$10.99
If You Were Me and Lived in... China
An Introduction to Civilizations Throughout Time
by Carole P. Roman
from CreateSpace
for 1st-3rd grade
in China (Location: HISMC-CHI)
$10.99
If You Were Me and Lived in... Egypt
A Child's Introduction to Cultures Around the World Volume 17
by Carole P. Roman
for 1st-3rd grade
in Near & Middle East (Location: HISMC-NME)
$10.99
If You Were Me and Lived in... Elizabethan England
An Introduction to Civilizations Throughout Time Volume 3
by Carole P. Roman
from CreateSpace
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$14.99 $8.00 (1 in stock)
If You Were Me and Lived in... Italy
by Carole P. Roman
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by Carole P. Roman
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$10.99
If You Were Me and Lived in...Portugal
by Carole P. Roman
from CreateSpace
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in Europe (Location: HISMC-EUR)
$10.99
Isaac Newton and the Laws of Motion
by Andrea Gianopoulos
1st edition from Capstone Press
for 1st-4th grade
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$7.95 $5.00 (1 in stock)
Jazz on a Saturday Night
by Leo & Diane Dillon
from Blue Sky press
for Preschool-2nd grade
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$6.00 (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)
Let's Find Out About Ice Cream
by Mary Ebeltoft Reid, photographs by John Williams
from Scholastic Inc.
for Preschool-1st grade
in Food & Farming Around the World (Location: HISMC-FOOD)
$2.50 (4 in stock)
Life and Work of Auguste Rodin
by Richard Tames
from Heinemann Library
for Kindergarten-2nd grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Life and Work of Frederic Remington
by Ernestine Giesecke
from Heinemann Library
for Kindergarten-2nd grade
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Life and Work of Henry Moore
by Sean Connolly
from Heinemann Library
for Kindergarten-3rd grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Linnea in Monet's Garden
by Christina Bjork & Lena Anderson
from R&S Books
Biography for Preschool- 3rd Grade
in Art History & Appreciation (Location: ELE-ARTHIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Lion Dancer
by Kate Waters & Madeline Slovenz-Low, photographs by Martha Cooper
from Scholastic Inc.
for Preschool-2nd grade
in China (Location: HISMC-CHI)
$3.50 (1 in stock)
Little Naturalists: John James Audobon Painted Birds
by Kate Coombs
from Gibbs M. Smith
for Nursery-1st grade
in Board Books (Location: PIC-BOARD)
$9.99
Little Naturalists: The Adventures of John Muir
by Kate Coombs
from Gibbs M. Smith
for Nursery-1st grade
in Board Books (Location: PIC-BOARD)
$11.99
Make Way
by Angela Burke Kunkel, illustrated by Claire Keane
from Random House
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$19.99
Maps & Globes
by Jack Knowlton, Harriett Barton
from HarperCollins
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$7.99 $4.00 (6 in stock)
Marie Curie
by Ibi Lepsckey
from Trumpet Club
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Masterpiece of the Month
by Jennifer Thomas
from Teacher Created Materials, Inc.
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in Art History & Appreciation (Location: ELE-ARTHIS)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
Me on the Map
by Joan Sweeney & Annette Cable
from Dragonfly Books
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in Introductory Geography (Location: GEO-INTRO)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Me on the Map
by Joan Sweeney, Illustrated by Qin Leng
from Dragonfly Books
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in Introductory Geography (Location: GEO-INTRO)
$7.99
Me on the Map
by Joan Sweeney, Illustrated by Qin Leng
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
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$6.50 (1 in stock)
Memoria Press First Grade Art Cards
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$11.50 $7.00 (1 in stock)
More Than Meets the Eye
by Bob Raczka
from Millbrook Press
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
My Brothers' Flying Machine
by Jane Yolen
from Little, Brown & Company
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
My Favorite Songs
by Maria Trapp
from Veritas Press
for Kindergarten-Adult
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$17.00
My Librarian Is a Camel
by Margriet Ruurs
from Boyds Mill Press
for 1st-3rd grade
in Diversity & Multicultural Books (Location: HISMC-MUL)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
My Little Island
by Frane Lessac
from HarperCollins
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in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
My Name is Georgia
from Harcourt, Brace & Company
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in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Nothing to Wear But Clothes
by Frank Jupo
from E.P. Dutton & Co.
for 1st-3rd grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Old Ironsides
by David L. Weitzman
from Sandpiper Books
for Preschool- 3rd Grade
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$4.50 (1 in stock)
People
by Peter Spier
from Dell Publishing
Non-fiction for Kindergarten-4th grade
in Oversized Picture Books (Location: PIC-OVER)
$12.95
People in the Past
Dorling Kindersley Picturepedia
from DK Publishing
for 1st-3rd grade
in Everyday Life in History (Location: HISV-EVERY)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Picture Book of Thomas Alva Edison
by David A. Adler, illustrated by John & Alexandra Wallner
from Holiday House
Picture Book Biography for 1st-3rd grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Picture Book of Thomas Alva Edison
by David A. Adler
from Holiday House
Picture Book Biography for 1st-3rd grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
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