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Regional History

Once upon a time, schoolchildren could be expected to know the name of the mountains separating France from Spain, the location of the Nile River, the capitals of all fifty states, and what and where the Pampas could be found. Now, even adults have a hard time naming the most populous city in the U.S. or the countries of Asia. These are, indeed, sad times, and doomed to become sadder if this geographic ignorance is not turned to knowledge.

Without a firm grasp on geography, how can we expect to know anything about history? History is rooted in a sense of place. Why did the Union troops lose the Battle of Cold Harbor? Because they were attacking Confederate fortifications uphill. And if you don't know anything about the Alps, the fact that Hannibal's army crossed them with elephants won't surprise you near as much as it should. Understanding the physical terrain and the demographics of an area are essential to understanding the history of that region.

Which is why studying history by place is such a good idea. There are cultural considerations, of course, and these can be immensely helpful guides in their own right, but simply looking at the lay of the land so to speak will provide a sense of context more abstract boundaries never can. African history, for instance, makes so much more sense if you know what the continent is like.

Even cultures are influenced by geography. Take the United States: some of the most important advances in transportation technology happened within her borders largely due to necessity. The steam engine train was perfected here, automobiles and airplanes were invented here, and in the last few decades we've led the world in space exploration.

It's not that no one traveled before the 19th and 20th century, or outside the North American continent—it's just that because the new nation was so vast, and there were so many natural barriers (the Mississippi River, the Grand Tetons and Great Smokey Mountains, the Mojave Desert), new forms of getting from here to there were not only a good idea, they were a necessity.

There probably isn't one instance in the history of the world in which geography and events weren't directly tied. Certainly this is true for military history, and exploration, and agriculture, but it's also true of ideas and ideologies. Part of the reason slavery was such an important part of Southern culture in the U.S. was that cotton was an immensely growable crop and only armies of slaves could be counted on to get all the work done; in order to justify the use of forced labor, however, a philosophical ethos was developed.

Other instances may be more obscure, but no less true. In France, the mild climate and fertile country led to a series of approaches to thought that emphasized experience and the pursuit of pleasure for its own sake (particularly existentialism); in ancient Greece, the geographical isolation enforced by mountains and seas allowed democratic polity to emerge among the city states.

Geography and history are pretty much Siamese twins, and academic technology has not advanced to the point where they can be separated without risk of life to both. We've organized the subcategories in this section along pretty standard lines (continents, countries, and the like), but standards arise because they work. Explore a region you're unfamiliar with; you're likely to uncover quite a few surprises.

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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1776
by David McCullough
1st edition from Simon and Schuster
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$9.60 (1 in stock)
1944: FDR and the Year That Changed History
by Jay Winik
from Simon and Schuster
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
500 Nations
by Alvin M. Josephy, Jr.
1st edition from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
in Native American History (Location: HISA-19NAT)
$16.00 (1 in stock)
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Other Stories
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
from Canterbury Classics
for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
African History of Africa
by Zeinab Badawi
from Mariner Books
for Adult
in Africa (Location: HISMC-AFR)
$27.63
Air Forces of the World
by Sue Butterworth, editor
from Chartwell Books
for 9th-Adult
in Aviation History (Location: HISV-AVIA)
$14.40 (1 in stock)
Amazing Mr. Doolittle
by Quentin Reynolds
from Appleton-Century-Crofts
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
America the Beautiful/ A Man of Destiny
by the editors of Country Beautiful Magazine
from Country Beautiful
for Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
American Barns and Covered Bridges
by Eric Sloane
1st edition from Wilfred Funk, Inc.
for 5th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$12.00 (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)
$7.20 (1 in stock)
American Heritage History of the American Revolution
by Bruce Lancaster
from American Heritage Publishing Co.
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$6.40 (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)
$9.60 (1 in stock)
American Indian Dances
by John L. Squires & Robert E. McLean
from The Ronald Press Co.
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Nonfiction (Location: VIN-NFIC)
$9.60 (1 in stock)
American President
by Philip Kunhardt, Jr., Philip Kunhardt III, Peter Kunhardt
from Riverhead Books
for Adult
in American Presidency (Location: HISV-PRE)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
American Story: The Revolutionaries
Time-Life: The American Story
from Time-Life Books
for Adult
in American Revolution (1765-1783) (Location: HISA-18REV)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
American Yesterday
by Eric Sloane
15th Printing from Funk & Wagnalls
for 5th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$9.60 (1 in stock)
An Autobiography or The Story of My Experiments with Truth
by M. K. Gandhi
from Navajivan Publishing House
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
Andersonville
by MacKinlay Kantor
from World Publishing Company
for 9th-Adult
1955 Pulitzer Prize Winner
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Annotated Arabian Nights
by Paulo Lemos Horta (editor), translated by Yasmine Seale
from W. W. Norton and Co.
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$38.25
Art and Artists of Russia
by Richard Hare
from Methuen
for Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
At the End of the Santa Fe Trail
by Sister Blandina Segale
4th Printing from Bruce Publishing Co.
for Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Atlas of Oregon
by William G. Loy (director and cartographer), text by Clyde P. Patton
from University of Oregon
for Adult
in World & U.S. Atlases (Location: GEO-ATLAS)
$9.60 (1 in stock)
Atlas of the Islamic World
by Francis Robinson
from Facts On File
for 9th-Adult
in Historical & Cultural Atlases (Location: HISRF-ATLAS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
August 1914
by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, translated by Michael Glenny
from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
for Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Australia: Beyond the Black Stump
by Gary Lewis
from Peter Antill-Rose
for 3rd-Adult
in Australia & Oceania (Location: HISMC-AU)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini
by Benvenuto Cellini
from International Collectors Library
for 9th-Adult
in Renaissance & Reformation Literature (Location: LIT3-REN)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Autobiography of William Allen White
by William Allen White
from Macmillan
for Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
B. Franklin, Printer
by David A. Adler
from Holiday House
for 6th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$6.40 (2 in stock)
Bad Faith
by Carmen Callil
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
Battle from the Start
by Brian Steel Wills
from HarperCollins
for 9th grade-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Beechcraft: Pursuit of Perfection
by Edward H. Phillips
from Flying Books
for Adult
in Aviation History (Location: HISV-AVIA)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Behind the Scenes
by Elizabeth Keckley, edited by Frances Smith Foster
from Lakeside Press
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Being American in Europe 1750-1860
by Daniel Kilbride
from Johns Hopkins University Press
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$11.20 (1 in stock)
Better a Shield Than a Sword
by Edward Teller
from Free Press
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
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)
Blue and the Gray
by Thomas B. Allen, Photography by Sam Abell
from National Geographic
for Adult
in American Civil War Era (1850-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
Book Lover's Bucket List
from British Library
for Adult
in Great Britain / England (Location: HISMC-BRIT)
$21.21
Boston
from Crescent Books
for 4th-Adult
in U.S. Monuments & Symbols (Location: HISV-LANUS)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Brave Men
by Ernie Pyle
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$7.20 (1 in stock)
British are Coming
The Revolution Trilogy #1 of 3
by Rick Atkinson
from Henry Holt and Company
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
Burma Surgeon
by Gordon S. Seagrave
from W. W. Norton and Co.
for Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
by Dee Brown
from Holt McDougal
for 9th-Adult
in Native American History (Location: HISA-19NAT)
$20.39
C. S. Lewis: A Life
by Alister McGrath
from Tyndale House
for 10th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$21.24
Captain Cook R. N. the Resolute Mariner
by Thomas Vaughan and A. A. St. C. M. Murray-Oliver
from Oregon Historical Society Press
Museum Exhibition Catalog for Adult
in Age of Exploration (1450-1700) (Location: HISA-16EXP)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
Captured!
by Carolyn Paine Miller
1st edition from Christian Herald Books
for Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
Cheer the Lonesome Traveller
by Leslie Alexander Lacy, illustrated by James Barkley
from Dial Press
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Chickamauga
by Horace Porter
from Konecky & Konecky
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Chief Joseph Country
by Bill Gulick
3rd Printing 1994 from Caxton Press
for 8th-Adult
in Native American History (Location: HISA-19NAT)
$16.00 (1 in stock)
Christian Life and Character of the Civil United States
by Benjamin F. Morris
from American Vision Press
for 9th-Adult
in America's Christian Heritage (Location: HISA-CH)
$9.60 (1 in stock)
Clive Staples Lewis
by William Griffin
from Harper & Row
for 10th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$9.60 (1 in stock)
Colonial Wars Source Book
by Philip J. Haythornthwaite
from Cassell
for 8th-Adult
in Great Britain / England (Location: HISMC-BRIT)
$16.00 (1 in stock)
Comes the Comrade!
by Alexandra Orme, translated from the Polish by M.A. Michael and L. Meyer
from William Morrow & Company
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
Coming Fury
Centennial History of the Civil War Volume 1
by Bruce Catton
from Doubleday & Company
for Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Conquerors
by Michael Beschloss
from Simon and Schuster
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Constitution of the United States of America
by Founding Fathers
from Applewood Books
Primary Source Documents for 9th-Adult
in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
$8.46
Cry from the Earth
by John Bierhorst
from Four Winds Press
for 6th-Adult
in Native American History (Location: HISA-19NAT)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
Cry of the Kalahari
by Mark and Delia Owens
from Houghton Mifflin
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
Crying for a Vision
by Walter Wangerin Jr.
from Simon & Schuster Macmillan
for 9th-Adult
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Dead and Those About to Die
by John C. McManus
from New American Library
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Dearest Mama
by Roger Fulford, editor
from Evans Brothers Limited
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$9.60 (1 in stock)
Death Valley Scotty
from Trans-Anglo Press
for Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$12.80 (1 in stock)
Deluge
The Trilogy #02
by Henryk Sienkiewicz, Translated by Jeremiah Curtin
from Little, Brown & Company
for Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$76.00 (1 in stock)
Destroyers for Great Britain
by Arnold Hague
Revised & Expanded from US Naval Institute Press
for Adult
in Ships, Boats & Submarines (Location: HISV-SHIP)
$7.20 (1 in stock)
Diedrich Knickerbocker's A History of New York
by Washington Irving, illustrated by F.O.C. Darley, introduction by Andrew B. Myers
Facsimile, First Printing from Sleepy Hollow Press
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Earth is the Lord's
by Taylor Caldwell
from Literary Guild of America
for 11th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$12.00 (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)
Edinburgh
by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by William Wilson
from Robert Grant & Son Ltd.
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Edwardian Lady
by Ina Taylor
from Holt, Rinehart and Winston
for 9th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$12.80 (1 in stock)
Egg and I
by Betty MacDonald
from J.B. Lippincott Co.
Biography for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$6.80 (1 in stock)
Elizabeth and Essex: A Tragic History
by Lytton Strachey
4th Printing from Harcourt, Brace & Company
for Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
Elizabeth of York
by Nancy Lenz Harvey
from Macmillan
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$9.60 (1 in stock)
Embattled Rebel
by James M. McPherson
from Penguin Press
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$7.20 (1 in stock)
English Weapons & Warfare 449-1660
by A.V.B. Norman and Don Pottinger
from Barnes & Noble
for 5th-Adult
in Military & Weapon History (Location: HISV-MILIT)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Eugenie Grandet
by Honore de Balzac, translated by Ellen Marriage, introduction by Richard Aldington, illustrations by Rene ben Sussan
from Heritage Press
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Everyday Life Through the Ages
by Robert Dolezal
from Reader's Digest
for 9th-Adult
in Everyday Life in History (Location: HISV-EVERY)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Exile
by Pearl S. Buck
from The John Day Company
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$9.60 (1 in stock)
Fight for Jerusalem
by Dore Gold
from Regnery Publishing, Inc.
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Fighting Angel
by Pearl S. Buck
from The John Day Company
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$9.60 (1 in stock)
Fighting for Liberty and Virtue
by Marvin Olasky
from Crossway Books
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Finns and Finnicans
by Walter Mattila
from Walter Mattila
for Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$30.40 (1 in stock)
Flag Book of the United States
by Whitney Smith
Revised Edition from William Morrow & Company
for 8th-Adult
in U.S. Monuments & Symbols (Location: HISV-LANUS)
$6.40 (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)
Forbidden Land
by Geoffrey T. Bull
from Moody Press
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$7.60 (1 in stock)
Founders of Freedom in America
by David C. Whitney
from J. G. Ferguson Publishing Co.
for Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson
by Gordon S. Wood
from Penguin Press
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$7.20 (1 in stock)
From a Name to a Number
by Alter Wiener
from Authorhouse
for 11th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$10.40 (1 in stock)
From Flappers to Flivvers...
from Reminisce Books
for 9th-Adult
in Roaring Twenties (1919-1929) (Location: HISA-20s)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
From the Earth
by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo
from Macmillan
for Adult
in Vegetarian and Vegan Cooking (Location: COOK-VEG)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
Gettysburg: Battle & Battlefield
by W. C. Storrick
from Barnes & Noble
for 9th-Adult
in American Civil War Era (1850-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Gettysburg: The Last Invasion
by Allen C. Guelzo
from Vintage Books
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Gifts of the Jews
by Thomas Cahill
from Nan A. Talese
for 9th-Adult
in Church History (Location: XCH-HIS)
$9.60 (1 in stock)
Give Me Liberty
Leaders in Action Series
by David Vaughan
from Cumberland House
Biography for 9th-Adult
in Leaders in Action (Location: BIO-LIA)
$17.95 $10.00 (1 in stock)
Grand Canal of China
from South China Morning Post Ltd.
for 6th-Adult
in China (Location: HISMC-CHI)
$5.60 (1 in stock)
Grand Canyon
by Tom Vail
from Master Books
for 5th-Adult
in U.S. Monuments & Symbols (Location: HISV-LANUS)
$14.44 $8.00 (1 in stock)
Great Adventures That Changed Our World
from Reader's Digest
for 10th-Adult
in Modern History (Location: HISW-MOD)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Great Lion of God
by Taylor Caldwell
Book Club from Doubleday & Company
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Greatest Generation
by Tom Brokaw
1st edition from Random House
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.00 (2 in stock)
Greatest Generation Speaks
by Tom Brokaw
1st edition from Random House
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift
from Everyman's Library
for 10th-Adult
in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
$30.00
Half-Crown House
by Helen Ashton
Book Club Edition from Dodd, Mead & Co.
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$9.60 (1 in stock)
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