History of Transportation

The history of the world is largely the history of movement. We speak of ancient cultures as though they were immobile, often forgetting that the greatest empires were often comprised primarily of displaced peoples. Genghis Khan uprooted entire populations and put them elsewhere in order to encourage homogeneity within his realm. How did he get them from place to place?

In the age of Learjets and bullet trains, the invention of the wheel seems distant and almost inconsequential. Riding horses is a little more immediate (oddly) because people still do that, but unless you're Amish or Mennonite Brethren living in the eastern United States, carts, wagons and buggies are mere images flickering against the faded screen of the past.

Still, the wheel is one of the building blocks of civilization. Things like wagons, trains, and cars would never have been developed without the wheel, and by extension we probably wouldn't have airplanes either. Boats and ships are a slightly different story, but the technology that allowed early civilizations to put to sea is as foundational as that used to make wheels.

Man has always been fascinated with movement of all kinds, not least the modes of conveyance used to get people and things around. It's important for Christians to remember that God's will is ultimately what allows advances in transportation technology, which (rather than ending the discussion) is the best reason to study it in the first place. To that end, we offer a variety of resources covering a variety of vehicles and inventions.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and 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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72 Items found Print
Active Filters: 11th grade (Ages 16-17)
Admiral David Glasgow Farragut
by Chester G. Hearn
from US Naval Institute Press
for 9th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
Air Forces of the World
by Sue Butterworth, editor
from Chartwell Books
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in Aviation History (Location: HISV-AVIA)
$18.00 (1 in stock)
All Hands Aloft!
by Lou A. Schmitt
from Howell-North
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Amelia Earhart
Lives to Remember
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America in the Air War
by Edward Jablonski
from Time-Life Books
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American Ship Models and How to Build Them
by V. R. Grimwood, foreword by Howard I. Chapelle
from Bonanza Books
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in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
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Arts of the Sailor
by Hervey Garrett Smith
Reprint from Dover Publications
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Blackbeard
by Dan Parry
from Thunder's Mouth Press
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$7.00 (1 in stock)
Blow Ye Winds Westerly
by Elizabeth Gemming
1st edition from Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.
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in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
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Modern Library Exploration
by Tim Severin
from Modern Library
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Code Name Verity
by Elizabeth Wein
from Hyperion/Madison Press
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Design Line: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
by Chris Oxlade, Edited by Jenny Broom, Illustrated by Mike Lemanski
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Discovery of the Titanic
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Early Oregon Days
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Flyboys
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Getting There
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Golden Age of Sail
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from Todtri Productions Limited
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Great Trains of All Time
by Freeman Hubbard; illustrated by Herb Mott
from Grosset & Dunlap
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Guns Off Cape Ann
by Kenneth Poolman
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History of Pirates
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How the Merrimac Won
by R.W. Daly
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Illustrated History of Ships and Boats
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Illustrated Wreck of the Whaleship Essex
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200th Anniversary from SeaWolf Press
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John Paul Jones
by Samuel Eliot Morison
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1960 Biography Pulitzer Prize
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Kid on the River
by Dean Nichols
1st edition from Binford & Mort Publishing
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Lafayette Flying Corps
by Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall
from Houghton Mifflin
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Lafayette Flying Corps Volume 1
by Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall
from Leonaur, Ltd.
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$24.00
Lafayette Flying Corps Volume 2
by Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall
from Leonaur, Ltd.
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$21.00
Lexington Goes Down
by A. A. Hoehling
from Prentice Hall
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Log of Christopher Columbus
by Christopher Columbus, translated by Robert Fuson
1992 Printing from International Marine / McGraw-Hill
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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.
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$60.00 (1 in stock)
Longitude
by Dava Sobel
1st edition from Walker and Company
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Longitude
by Dava Sobel
1st edition from Penguin Books
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Lost at Sea
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from Smithmark Publishers
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Luftwaffe
1st edition from Time-Life Books
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Mayflower II
from Plimoth Plantation Publication
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Men-of-War
Seafarers
by David Howarth
1st edition from Time-Life Books
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Mr Bligh's Bad Language
by Greg Dening
from Cambridge University
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Mustang at War
by Roger A. Freeman
from Doubleday & Company
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Mutiny of the Bounty
by Sir John Barrow
1st U.S. ed from David R. Godine
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Nothing Like It in the World
by Stephen E. Ambrose
from Simon and Schuster
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Paddle-Wheel Days in California
from Stanford University Press
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Pathfinders
by David Nevin
1st edition from Time-Life Books
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in Aviation History (Location: HISV-AVIA)
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Pictorial History of American Ships
by John & Alice Durant
from A.S. Barnes and Co.
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Road to Kitty Hawk
by Valerie Moolman
Unknown from Time-Life Books
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Sailing-Ship
by Romola & R. C. Anderson
from Bonanza Books
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San Francisco Bay
by John Haskell Kemble
from Cornell Maritime Press
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in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
San Francisco Bay
by John Haskell Kemble
1978 Reissue from Bonanza Books
for 7th-12th grade
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Seafaring America
by Alexander Laing
from McGraw-Hill
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Ships
by Tom McCluskie
from Chartwell Books
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Ships Visual Encyclopedia
by David Ross
from Amber Books
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Shipwrecks of the Pacific Coast
by James A. Gibbs
2nd edition from Binford & Mort Publishing
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in Pacific States (Location: HISV-PNW)
Soldiers of Fortune
by Sterling Seagrave
from Time-Life Books
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in Aviation History (Location: HISV-AVIA)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
South
by Ernest Shackleton
from Living Book Press
Expedition Memoir for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
South Sea Shilling
by Eric Swenson
First Edition from Viking Press
for 7th-Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Spirit of St. Louis
by Charles A. Lindbergh
from Charles Scribner's Sons
Biography for 8th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Tale of a Shipwreck
by James Norman Hall, illustrated by W. Alister MacDonald
from Houghton Mifflin
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in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Tall Ships
by Maldwin Drummond, illustrated by Mike Willoughby, Foreword by H.R.H the Duke of Edinburgh
First American Edition from G.P. Putnam's Sons
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$15.00 (1 in stock)
The Bounty
by Caroline Alexander
Reprint from Viking Press
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Timechart History of Aviation
from Lowe & B. Hould Publishers
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in Aviation History (Location: HISV-AVIA)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Trains
by John R. Day, illustrated by David A. Warner & Nigel W. Hearn
1989 Reprint from Treasure Press
for 6th-Adult
in Vintage Nonfiction (Location: VIN-NFIC)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Twelve Seconds to the Moon
by Rosamond Young & Catharine Fitzgerald
2nd edition from Air Force Museum Foundation, Inc.
for 7th-Adult
in Aviation History (Location: HISV-AVIA)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Twentieth Century Sea Power
for 7th-12th grade
in Clearance: History & Geography (Location: ZCLE-HIS)
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Two Years Before the Mast
Signet Classics
by Richard Henry Dana Jr.
from Signet Classics
Autobiographical Narrative for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Two Years Before the Mast
by Richard Henry Dana Jr., illustrated by E. Boyd Smith
from SeaWolf Press
Autobiographical Narrative for 10th-Adult
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$12.95
Vancouver's Discovery of Puget Sound
by Edmond S. Meany
from Binford & Mort Publishing
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in Pacific States (Location: HISV-PNW)
Voyage of the Beagle
by Charles Darwin, abridged by Millicent E. Selsam and illustrated by Anthony Ravielli
from Harper & Row
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Nonfiction (Location: VIN-NFIC)
Wooden Ships and Iron Men
by Clifford Lindsey Alderman
from Walker and Company
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in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Wright Brothers
by David McCullough
Reprint from Simon & Schuster Macmillan
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in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$17.00
Wright Brothers
by David McCullough
First American Condition from Simon & Schuster Macmillan
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in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$15.00 (2 in stock)