United States History

What should we say about the United States of America? So much has already been said, adding our two cents is a bit redundant or presumptuous, depending on your perspective. Certainly, no one needs us to outline the facts, the major events and figures, or to describe our unique written Constitution and democratic-republican system.

We can offer a bit of perspective. It's nothing new, nothing we came up with on our own, but it is different from a lot of the prevailing notions about both history in general and our nation in particular.

For starters, there's no specific reference to the U.S. in the Bible. The principles found in God's Word that apply to all nations certainly apply to the United States as well, but we aren't a Christian nation, we don't hold a special place in biblical prophecy, and Manifest Destiny is the result of Enlightenment rationalist views about the Progress of Mankind rather than being rooted in any kind of Christian attitude.

That said, many of the first settlers of the New World were dedicated Christians seeking the right to worship God without the constraints of political entanglement or government-imposed strictures and doctrine. The Pilgrims came in 1620, just 13 years after the first successful English settlement at Jamestown, and the Puritan settlers followed soon after.

Their arrivals and colonization didn't make America Christian, of course. It was a broad continent, largely unknown, and the initial colonies weren't strictly bound together at first, as they were later to become. By that time, things had become substantially more secular, so that by the 18th century many Americans were just as degenerate as their European counterparts. Fortunately, men like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield were around to preach the true Gospel, and to initiate a revival known as the Great Awakening.

Secular forces were still at work, though. While there were definitely many Christians involved, the American Revolution was largely the result of Enlightenment philosophizing, and men were convinced that America could produce a virtuous and stable population if education and participatory government were enforced. So they rebelled against England, and the United States republic was formed.

Ever since, groups and individuals have tried to call Americans back to their Christian roots. That's the wrong strategy: we don't need to call anyone back to anything, we need to point the way forward to the pursuit of Christ and the bringing of His Gospel and glory to every corner of the earth no matter what our country of origin. That America has been so materially blessed simply means we have more options at our disposal for proclaiming and bringing the Word to the rest of the world.

Our study of United States history is consequently Christ-centered. Not because we think America is more Christian than other countries, but because it (like all other nations) is under Christ's control as King of Heaven and Lord of Time. Of course, you shouldn't abandon study of the facts, people and events, but they only attain true meaning when viewed through the lens of Christ's ultimate plan of redemption and self-glorification.

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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102 Items found Print
Active Filters: Biographies, 12th grade (Ages 17-18), Hardcover
Admiral David Glasgow Farragut
by Chester G. Hearn
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Admiral of the Ocean Sea
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Amazing Mr. Doolittle
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American Caesar
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Annotated Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant
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Apostle of Liberty
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Boys in the Boat
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Buffalo Bill's Life Story
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Colonial Entrepreneur
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Comes the Comrade!
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Declaration of Independence with Short Biographies of its Signers
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Diary of a Young Girl
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Early Days of a Cowboy on the Pecos
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Easy Company Soldier
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Escape from Corregidor
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Ferdinand and Isabella
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Fighting the Flying Circus
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Forgotten Founding Father
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George Washington
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George Washington Carver: An American Biography
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George Whitefield: Wayfaring Witness
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Give Me Liberty
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God and Ronald Reagan
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Great Adventures That Changed Our World
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Greater Journey
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Here Is Your War
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In the Arena: A Memoir of Victory, Defeat and Renewal
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Indian Boyhood
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Ishi: Last of His Tribe
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John Brown Russwurm
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Laura Ingalls Wilder: Pioneer Girl
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Life & Times of Washington
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Life and Diary of David Brainerd
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Life and Letters of "Stonewall" Jackson
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Life and Letters of Benjamin Franklin
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Life of Andrew Jackson
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Life of John Newton
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Life of Washington
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Livingstone and his African Journeys
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Lost Executioner
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Luck of the La Verendryes
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Maria
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Mathew Brady
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Memorial Volume of Jefferson Davis
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Mosby's Rangers
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Never Dies the Dream
by Margaret Landon
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Never Give In
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Nickel's Worth of Skim Milk
by Robert J. Hastings, illustrated by Steve Kerr
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Oregon Trail
by Francis Parkman, Jr., illustrated by Frederic Remington
1993 printing from Little, Brown & Company
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Oregon Trail
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Oregon Trail
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Oregon Trail
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Our Mountain Hermitage
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Presidency of George Washington
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Ranch under the Rimrock
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Revolt in the Desert
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Roots
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Saddles East
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Sam Houston
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Second World War: Hinge of Fate
Second World War Volume 4
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Sketches of the Life of Captain Hugh A. White
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Spirit of 1776
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Standing Like a Stone Wall
by James I. Robertson Jr.
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Then Darkness Fled
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by Stephen Mansfield
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This Promise of Change
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2020 Robert F. Siebert Honor Book
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To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee
35 Anv from HarperTrophy
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1961 Pulitzer Prize winner
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To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee, illustrated by David Johnson
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Trails Plowed Under
by Charles M. Russell
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Twelve Seconds to the Moon
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Twilight Struggle
by Barbara Harrison, Daniel Terris
1st edition from HarperCollins
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Unbroken
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Unbroken (Adapted for Young Adults)
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Uncle Tom's Cabin
Everyman's Library
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$28.00
Uncle Tom's Cabin
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Uncle Tom's Cabin
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Uncle Tom's Cabin
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Vancouver's Discovery of Puget Sound
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Wild West
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