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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...and now Miguel
by Joseph Krumgold
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1954 Newbery Medal winner
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1, 2, 3, Go!
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1,001 Things Everyone Should Know About American History
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1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving
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1776
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500 Nations
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A is for Abigail
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Abe Lincoln Gets His Chance
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Biography for 3rd-6th grade
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Abe Lincoln Grows Up
by Carl Sandburg, illustrated by James Daugherty
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Admiral of the Ocean Sea
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Adventures of Captain Bonneville
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Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Sterling Classics
by Mark Twain, illustrated by Scott McKowen
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Adventures of Perrine
Windermere Readers #10
by Hector Malot, translated by Gil Meynier, adapted by Edith Heal
1954 edition from Rand McNally
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Africa's Vanishing Wildlife
by Chris & Tilde Stuart
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Air Forces of the World
by Sue Butterworth, editor
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Alamo All Stars
Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales #6
by Nathan Hale
from Amulet Books
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Album of Memories
by Tom Brokaw
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Album of the Civil War
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All Aboard for Freedom
by Marie McSwigan, illustrated by E. Harper Johnson, with an introduction by Jan Papanek
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All Thirteen
by Christina Soontornvat
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Daring Rescues for 4th-7th grade
2021 Newbery Honor Book, 2021 Robert F. Sibert Honor Book
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$24.99
Amazing Mr. Doolittle
by Quentin Reynolds
from Appleton-Century-Crofts
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America 1933
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America and Its People
by Laureat Bernard,Ralph Brande, Don Sharkey
from W. H. Sadlier
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America in the 1900s and 1910s
Decades of American History
by Jim Callan
from Facts On File
for 5th-8th grade
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$25.00 (1 in stock)
America in the 1930s
Decades of American History
by Jim Callan
from Facts On File
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America in the 1970s
from Facts On File
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America in the 1990s
by George Ochoa
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America in the Air War
by Edward Jablonski
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America is Born
A History for Peter #1
by Gerald W. Johnson (iilustrations by Leonard Everett Fisher)
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$45.00 (1 in stock)
America is....
by Louise W. Borden, illustrated by Stacey Schuett
from Margaret K. McElderry Books
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America the Beautiful/ A Man of Destiny
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America's Ethan Allen
by Stewart H. Holbrook; illustrated by Lynd Ward
9th printing from Houghton Mifflin
Picture Book Biography for 4th-6th grade
1950 Caldecott Honor Book
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America's Fascinating Indian Heritage
by James A. Maxwell
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America's Lost Dream
by Tom Dooley
from Master Books
American History for 4th-6th grade
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America: A Patriotic Primer
by Lynne Cheney
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America: A Patriotic Primer
by Lynne Cheney
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American Children Through Their Books
by Sister Monica Kiefer
1970 printing from University of Pennsylvania Press
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American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Americans Volume 1
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American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Americans Volume 10
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American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Americans Volume 12
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American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Americans Volume 2
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American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Americans Volume 4
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American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Americans Volume 5
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American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Americans Volume 6
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American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Americans Volume 7
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American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Americans Volume 8
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American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Americans Volume 9
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American Heritage History of the American Revolution
by Bruce Lancaster
from American Heritage Publishing Co.
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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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American Heroes of the 20th Century
Landmark Giant #14
by Harold & Doris Faber
from Random House
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
American Indian Dances
by John L. Squires & Robert E. McLean
from The Ronald Press Co.
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American Indian Tales and Legends
by Vladimir Hulpach, illustrated by Miloslav Troup
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American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House
by Jon Meacham
from Random House
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American Moments
by Robert Burleigh, illustrated by Bruce Strachan
from Henry Holt and Company
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American Nation
by John D. Hicks
from Riverside Press
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$6.50 (1 in stock)
American Plague
by Jim Murphy
from Clarion Books
for 4th-8th grade
2004 Newbery Honor Book, 2004 Robert F. Sibert Medal winner, NCTE Orbi Pictus Award
in New Nation (1783-1800) (Location: HISA-18NN)
$21.99
American President
by Philip Kunhardt, Jr., Philip Kunhardt III, Peter Kunhardt
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American Story: The Revolutionaries
Time-Life: The American Story
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American Tall Tales
by Mary Pope Osborne, Michael McCurdy
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Fairy Tales & Fables for 4th-8th grade
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$19.99
Americans Before Columbus
by Elizabeth Baity, illustrated by C.B. Falls
from Viking Press
for 5th-10th grade
1952 Newbery Honor Book
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$14.00 (1 in stock)
An Autobiography or The Story of My Experiments with Truth
by M. K. Gandhi
from Navajivan Publishing House
for Adult
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Ancient Rome
Discoveries Series
by Dr. Paul C. Roberts
from Barnes & Noble
for 4th-9th grade
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$4.50 (1 in stock)
Ancient World: The Chinese
The Ancient World
by Pamela Odijk
from Macmillan
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
Andersonville
by MacKinlay Kantor
from World Publishing Company
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1955 Pulitzer Prize Winner
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Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
by Anne Frank, translated by B. M. Mooyaart-Doubleday with an introduction by Eleanor Roosevelt
Book Club Edition from Nelson Doubleday, Inc.
for 6th-10th grade
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$14.00 (1 in stock)
Anno's China
by Anno
from Beautiful Feet Books
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$19.95
Anno's Italy
by Mitsumasa Anno
from Beautiful Feet Books
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$19.95
Anno's Spain
by Mitsumasa Anno
from Beautiful Feet Books
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$19.95
Annotated Arabian Nights
by Paulo Lemos Horta (editor), translated by Yasmine Seale
from W. W. Norton and Co.
for 10th-Adult
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$45.00
Answering the Cry for Freedom
by Gretchen Woelfle, Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie
from Calkins Creek
for 4th-7th grade
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$19.99
Apache Land
by Ross Santee
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 5th-8th grade
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$14.00 (1 in stock)
Appomattox
by Burke Davis
from HarperCollins
for 4th-6th grade
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$3.50 (1 in stock)
Aquila's Drinking Gourd
by Pamela Dell
from Tradition Books
for 1st-3rd grade
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Arabs in the Golden Age
by Mokhtar Moktefi & Veronique Ageorges
from Avyx, Inc.
for 4th-6th grade
in Middle Ages (Location: HISW-MID)
$7.00 (2 in stock)
Archko Volume
by Drs. McIntosh and Twyman, translators
Reprint Edition from Keats Publishing, Inc
for 10th-Adult
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Ark, The
by Margot Benary-Isbert
2021 Revision from Purple House Press
for 3rd-10th grade
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$23.00
Art and Artists of Russia
by Richard Hare
from Methuen
for Adult
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$15.00 (1 in stock)
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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$12.00 (2 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)
Astrid the Unstoppable
by Maria Parr, translated from the Norwegian by Guy Puzey
from Candlewick Press
for 2nd-5th grade
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
At Home with Madhur Jaffrey
by Madhur Jaffrey
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for Adult
in International & Ethnic Cooking (Location: COOK-ETH)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Atlas of Oregon
by William G. Loy (director and cartographer), text by Clyde P. Patton
from University of Oregon
for Adult
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
Atlas of the Islamic World
by Francis Robinson
from Facts On File
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
August 1914
by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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$12.00 (2 in stock)
Australia
by Gary Lewis
from Peter Antill-Rose
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Australia: Beyond the Black Stump
by Gary Lewis
from Peter Antill-Rose
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
World's Greatest Literature
by Benjamin Franklin
from Spencer Press
for 9th-Adult
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini
by Benvenuto Cellini
from International Collectors Library
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$11.50 (1 in stock)
Aztecs & Incas
Sightseers Essential Travel Guides to the Past
by Camilla Reid
Har/Map from Kingfisher
for 2nd-5th grade
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
B is for Beaver
by Marie & Roland Smith, illustrated by Michael Roydon
from Sleeping Bear Press
for nursery-3rd grade
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B. Franklin, Printer
by David A. Adler
from Holiday House
for 6th-Adult
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$8.00 (2 in stock)
Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave
by written by Marianna Mayer, Illustrated by K. Y. Craft
First Edition from HarperCollins
for Preschool- 3rd Grade
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$17.99
Bad River Boys
by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve, illustrated by Bill Farnsworth
from Holiday House
for Kindergarten-2nd grade
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Bambi
by Felix Salten, illustrated by Steve Johnson & Lou Fancher
from Charles Scribner's Sons
Animal Stories: Fantasy for 4th-6th grade
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$29.99 $18.00 (1 in stock)
Battle from the Start
by Brian Steel Wills
from HarperCollins
for 9th grade-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$15.00 (1 in stock)
Battle of Austerlitz
by Trevor Dupuy
from Macmillan
for 9th-Adult
in France (Location: HISMC-FRA)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Battles of the Ancient World: 1285 BC ~ AD 451
by Kelly Devries, et. al
from Metro Books
for 6th-8th grade
in Military & Weapon History (Location: HISV-MILIT)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Bayeux Tapestry
by Norman Denny & Josephine Filmer-Sankey
First Edition from Atheneum
for 7th-Adult
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Be a King
by Carole Boston Weatherford
from Bloomsbury Publishing
for Kindergarten-2nd grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
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