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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13 Colonies: Georgia
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50 States Flipper
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A Christmas Carol Audio Drama - 2 CD set
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Landmark Series
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Abe Lincoln Grows Up
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Abraham Lincoln
Heroes of History
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Abraham Lincoln's World
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1945 Newbery Honor Book
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Accidental Voyage
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Across America on an Emigrant Train
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1994 NCTE Orbis Pictus Award
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Across Five Aprils
by Irene Hunt
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1965 Newbery Honor Book
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Across Five Aprils
by Irene Hunt
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1965 Newbery Honor Book
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Adam of the Road
Puffin Newbery Library
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Adoniram Judson
Christian Heroes: Then & Now
by Geoff & Janet Benge
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Adopted by Indians
by Thomas Jefferson Mayfield
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Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Puffin Classics
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Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Sterling Classics
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Adventures of Perrine
Windermere Readers #10
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1954 edition from Rand McNally
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Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Puffin Classics
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Aeneid for Boys and Girls
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Roman Mythology for 5th-8th grade
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Aeneid for Boys and Girls
by Alfred J. Church
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Roman Mythology for 5th-8th grade
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Africa's Vanishing Wildlife
by Chris & Tilde Stuart
1st edition from Smithsonian Books
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After the Dancing Days
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After the War
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Air Raid - Pearl Harbor!
by Theodore Taylor
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Al Capone Does My Shirts
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2005 Newbery Honor Book
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Alamo All Stars
Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales #6
by Nathan Hale
from Amulet Books
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Albert Schweitzer
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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 He Knew
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All Thirteen
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Daring Rescues for 4th-7th grade
2021 Newbery Honor Book, 2021 Robert F. Sibert Honor Book
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Amelia Earhart
Lives to Remember
by Burke Davis
from G.P. Putnam's Sons
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America and Vietnam
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America from the Beginning - Student Manual
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America Grows Up
A History for Peter #2
by Gerald W. Johnson
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America in the 1900s and 1910s
Decades of American History
by Jim Callan
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America in the 1930s
Decades of American History
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America in the 1970s
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America in the 1990s
by George Ochoa
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America is Born
A History for Peter #1
by Gerald W. Johnson (iilustrations by Leonard Everett Fisher)
from William Morrow & Company
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$45.00 (1 in stock)
America's Fascinating Indian Heritage
by James A. Maxwell
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America's God and Country
by William J. Federer
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America's War Heroes
by Marilyn Boyer
from Master Books
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$10.39
America: The First 350 Years - MP3 CD
by Steve Wilkins
from Covenant Publications
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$25.00
American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Americans Volume 1
from Dell Publishing
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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 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
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American History in Verse
by Burton Stevenson
from Bob Jones University Press
Poetry for 3rd-Adult
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American Indian Prayer Guide
by Danette Maloof, Dean Cozzens
from Sonlight Curriculum, Ltd.
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American Indian Tales and Legends
by Vladimir Hulpach, illustrated by Miloslav Troup
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American Plague
by Jim Murphy
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2004 Newbery Honor Book, 2004 Robert F. Sibert Medal winner, NCTE Orbi Pictus Award
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$21.99
American Presidents & Presidential First Ladies Notebooking Pages
from Notebooking Pages
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American Revolution
Landmark Series
by Bruce Bliven
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American Tall Tales
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American Waterways: Canal Days
by Jeanne Munn Bracken, ed.
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Americans Before Columbus
by Elizabeth Baity, illustrated by C.B. Falls
from Viking Press
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1952 Newbery Honor Book
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$14.00 (1 in stock)
Amethyst Ring
by Scott O'Dell
from Houghton Mifflin
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Amistad Slave Revolt and American Abolition
by Karen Zeinert
from Linnet Books
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$6.50 (1 in stock)
Amistad: A Long Road to Freedom
by Walter Dean Myers
from Puffin Books
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Amos Fortune, Free Man
by Elizabeth Yates, illustrated by Nora S. Unwin
from Puffin Books
Realistic Fiction for 4th-8th grade
1951 Newbery Medal winner
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$7.99
Amy Carmichael
Christian Heroes: Then & Now
by Geoff & Janet Benge
from YWAM Publishing
Biography for 4th-7th grade
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$11.99
Ancient China: To the Great Wall...and Beyond
by Judy Wilcox
from Zeezok Publishing
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$13.95
Ancient Israelites and Their Neighbors
by Marian Broida
from Chicago Review Press
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$18.95
Ancient Near East - Coloring Book
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$3.50 (1 in stock)
Ancient Romans
People of the Ancient World
by Allison Lassieur
from Franklin Watts
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$7.00 (1 in stock)
Ancient Rome
by Michelle Miller
from TruthQuest History
History Curriculum for 5th-12th grade
Cathy Duffy's 100 Top Picks
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$24.95 $17.50 (2 in stock)
Ancient Rome
Gifted Learning Series
by John H. Artman
from Good Apple
for 4th-8th grade
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$3.50 (2 in stock)
Ancient Rome
Discoveries Series
by Dr. Paul C. Roberts
from Barnes & Noble
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$4.50 (1 in stock)
Ancient Sicily
Monuments Past & Present
by Gaetano Messineo & Emanuela Borgia
from Vision S.R.L.
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$27.00
Ancient World: The Chinese
The Ancient World
by Pamela Odijk
from Macmillan
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
And Now Miguel
by Joseph Krumgold
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction for 5th-8th grade
1954 Newbery Medal winner
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$5.99
Angel on the Square
by Gloria Whelan
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Anna and the King (adapted)
by Margaret Landon
from HarperCollins
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Anne Frank: Beyond the Diary
by Ruud van der Rol & Rian Verhoeven
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$7.50 (1 in stock)
Anne Frank: Beyond the Diary
by Ruud van der Rol & Rian Verhoeven
from Scholastic Inc.
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$3.50 (1 in stock)
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
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Anne of Avonlea
Anne #2
by L. M. Montgomery
from Aladdin Books
for 4th-8th grade
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$4.50 (1 in stock)
Anne of Green Gables
Anne #1
by L. M. Montgomery
Reprint from Puffin Books
Orphan Stories for 5th-9th grade
in Puffin Classics (Location: FIC-PUF)
$8.99
Anno's Journey
by Mitsumasa Anno
from Beautiful Feet Books
for 2nd-Adult
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$14.95
Anpao
by Jamake Highwater
from HarperCollins
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1978 Newbery Honor Book
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$8.99
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
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in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Ark, The
by Margot Benary-Isbert
2021 Revision from Purple House Press
for 3rd-10th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$23.00
Art of Keeping Cool
by Janet Taylor Lisle
from Scholastic Inc.
for 4th-8th grade
2001 Scott O'Dell Award
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$2.50 (2 in stock)
Atlas of North American Exploration
by Glyndwr Williams, William H. Goetzmann
Oklahoma Paperbacks Ed from University of Oklahoma Press
for 4th-8th grade
in Age of Exploration (1450-1700) (Location: HISA-16EXP)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Attack in the Rye Grass
Trailblazer Series
by Dave and Neta Jackson
from Castle Rock Creative
for 3rd-7th grade
in Trailblazer Books (Location: SER-TRAIL)
$8.99
Augustus Caesar's World
by Genevieve Foster
from Beautiful Feet Books
Non-fiction for 7th-10th grade
Cathy Duffy's 100 Top Picks
in Ancient Rome (Location: HISW-ANRO)
$21.95 $15.00 (1 in stock)
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