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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107 Items found Print
Active Filters: Historical Fiction, 4th grade (Ages 9-10), Hardcover
Addy Learns a Lesson
by Connie Porter
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Alamo All Stars
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by Nathan Hale
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Battle for Quebec
North Star Books #38
by F. Van Wyck Mason, illustrated by Victor Mays
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Bay of the North
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Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin
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Birchbark House
by Louise Erdrich
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National Book Award Finalist
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Book of Indians
by Holling C. Holling
1st edition from Platt and Munk Publishers
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Book of Indians
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Brady
by Jean Fritz, illustrated by Lynd Ward
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Bull Run
by Paul Fleischman
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By the Shores of Silver Lake
Little House Series #5
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
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1940 Newbery Honor Book
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Little House Series #5
by Laura Ingalls Wilder; illustrated by Garth Williams
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1940 Newbery Honor Book
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Caravan to Oregon
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Child Star
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Come on Seabiscuit
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Cromwell's Head
by Olivia Coolidge, illustrated by Edward A. Wilson
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Daniel Boone, Wilderness Scout
Junior Deluxe Editions
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Biography for 4th-7th grade
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Daniel Boone, Wilderness Scout
by Stewart Edward White, illustrated by James Daugherty
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Biography for 4th-7th grade
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Davy Crockett
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1935 Newbery Honor Book
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Down Ryton Water
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1942 Newbery Honor
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Elijah Of Buxton
by Christopher Paul Curtis
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2008 Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner, 2008 Newbery Honor Book
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$9.00 (2 in stock)
Elin's Amerika
by Marguerite de Angeli
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Far Frontier
by William O. Steele; illustrated by Paul Galdone
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Farmer Boy
Little House Series #3
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
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Farmer Boy (Pictorial Cover)
Little House Series #3
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
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Fear in the Forest
by Cateau de Leeuw
from T. Nelson & Sons
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First Four Years
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
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First Four Years (Pictorial Cover)
by Laura Ingalls Wilder; illustrated by Garth Williams
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Flaming Arrows
by William O. Steele, Illustrated by Paul Galdone
1st edition from Harcourt
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Fortunate Grandchild
by Miss Read
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Going West
by Jean Van Leeuwen, illustrated by Thomas Allen
from Dial Books for Young Readers
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Grandfather's Dance
by Patricia MacLachlan
from HarperCollins
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Half-Breed
by Evelyn Sibley Lampman
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House on Stink Alley
by F. N. Monjo
First Edition from Holt, Rinehart and Winston
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Jack Wade, Fighter for Liberty
A Doubleday Signal Book
by Irving Werstein, illustrated by Albert Orbaan
from Doubleday & Company
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January's Sparrow
by Patricia Polacco
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Johnny Tremain
Illustrated American Classics
by Esther Forbes
from Houghton Mifflin
Historical Fiction/Adventure for 3rd-10th grade
1944 Newbery Medal winner
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Johnny Tremain
by Esther Forbes, illustrated by Lynd Ward
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Johnny Tremain - Student's Edition
by Esther Forbes, illustrated by Lynd Ward, discussion guide by Ruth M. Stauffer
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Kathleen: A Yankee Girl at Gettysburg
by Alice Turner Curtis
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Kings Mountain
by G. Clifton Wisler
1st edition from HarperCollins
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Kirsten and the New Girl
American Girls Short Stories
by Janet Shaw
First Edition, First Printing from American Girl
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Lafayette!
Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales #8
by Nathan Hale
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Liberty Letters: The Personal Correspondence of Hannah Brown and Sarah Smith
by Nancy LeSourd
1st edition from Zonderkidz
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Liberty Letters: The Story of Pocahontas, 1613
Liberty Letters
by Nancy LeSourd
1st edition from Zondervan
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Little House in the Big Woods
Little House Series #1
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
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$18.99
Little House in the Big Woods
by Laura Ingalls Wilder, illustrated by Garth Williams
Book Club Edition from Harper & Row
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
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by Laura Ingalls Wilder
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$9.00 (5 in stock)
Little House on the Prairie
Little House Series #2
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-6th grade
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$17.99
Little House on the Prairie (pictorial hardcover)
Little House Series #2
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-6th grade
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Little Town on the Prairie
Little House Series #7
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-8th grade
1942 Newbery Honor Book
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$19.99
Little Town on the Prairie (Pictorial Cover)
Little House Series #7
by Laura Ingalls Wilder; illustrated by Garth Williams
from HarperCollins
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1942 Newbery Honor Book
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Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by Anna Marie Magagna
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Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by Derek James
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
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Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by Kate Aldous and James McGairy
First Edition from Parragon Publishing
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Long Winter
Little House Series #6
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
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Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-8th grade
1941 Newbery Honor Book
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Long Winter (Pictorial Cover)
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
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Lost Colony
by Jean Bothwell, illustrated by Edward F. Cortese
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Major Impossible
Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales #9
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Meet Addy
by Connie Porter
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Mighty Mastiff of the Mayflower
by Peter Arenstam, illustrated by Karen Busch Holman
from History Press
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
North of Danger
by Dale Fife, map and decorations by Haakon Saether
1st edition from E.P. Dutton & Co.
for 3rd-6th grade
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
North to Freedom
by Anne Holm
from Harcourt, Brace & World
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$8.00 (2 in stock)
Om-kas-toe of the Blackfeet
by Kenneth Thomasma
Later Printing from Baker Books
Historical Fiction for 4th-6th grade
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
On the Banks of Plum Creek
Little House Series #4
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-6th grade
1938 Newbery Honor Book
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$18.99
On to Oregon!
by Honore Morrow
1946 Edition from William Morrow & Company
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One Dead Spy
Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales #1
by Nathan Hale
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$14.99
Patriots' Gold
by Virginia Frances Voight, illustrated by H. Tom Hall
from Macrae-Smith Company
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Patsy Jefferson's Diary
by Miriam Anne Bourne
First Edition from Coward McCann
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Peacemaker
by Joseph Bruchac
from Dial Press
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$16.99
Pearl Harbor is Burning!
by Kathleen V. Kudlinski, illustrated by Ronald Himler
from Viking Press
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Phoebe and the General
by Judith Berry Griffin
from Weekly Reader
Historical Fiction for 3rd-6th grade
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Place to Hang the Moon
by Kate Albus
from Margaret Ferguson Books
for 3rd-6th grade
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$17.99
Prisoner of the Indies
by Geoffrey Household, with map and decorations by Warren Chappell
from Little, Brown & Company
for 4th-7th grade
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Puritan Adventure
by Lois Lenski
from Lippincott
for 3rd-7th grade
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Rabbits and Redcoats
by Robert Newton Peck
from Walker and Company
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Raid of No Return
Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales #7
by Nathan Hale
from Amulet Books
for 4th-8th grade
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$14.99
River-Boy
by Isabel Proudfit
1958 Printing from Julian Messner
for 4th-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Rose's Journal
by Marissa Moss
from Houghton Mifflin
for 4th-6th grade
in Great Depression (1929-1939) (Location: HISA-20GD)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Rush Revere and the American Revolution
by Rush Limbaugh with Kathryn Adams Limbaugh
from Threshold Editions
for 4th-8th grade
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims
by Rush Limbaugh
from Threshold Editions
for 4th-8th grade
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Rush Revere and the First Patriots
by Rush Limbaugh
1St Edition from Threshold Editions
for 4th-8th grade
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Sacajawea of the Shoshones
by Della Gould Emmonds
from Binford & Mort Publishing
for 4th-6th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
Show Way
by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Hudson Talbott
First Ed from G.P. Putnam's Sons
for 1st-4th grade
2006 Newbery Honor Book
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$18.99
Siege!
by Wilma Pitchford Hays, illustrated by Peter Cox
from Coward McCann
for 3rd-6th grade
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$7.50 (1 in stock)
Silver Sword
by Ian Serraillier, illustrated by C. Walter Hodges
from Criterion Books
for 4th-8th grade
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$8.00 (3 in stock)
So Far from the Sea
by Eve Bunting
from Clarion Books
for Kindergarten-4th grade
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Spy Who Came in from the Sea
by Peggy Nolan
from Pineapple Press
Adventure Stories for 2nd-6th grade
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$14.95
Spy!
by Anna Myers
from Walker and Company
for 3rd-6th grade
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Stink Alley
by Jamie Gilson
from HarperCollins
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
Story for a Black Night
by Clayton Bess
from Houghton Mifflin
for 4th-6th grade
in Clearance: History & Geography (Location: ZCLE-HIS)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Sword of the Wilderness
by Elizabeth Coatsworth, illustrated by Harve Stein
from Macmillan
for 4th-7th grade
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$6.50 (1 in stock)
That Lively Man, Ben Franklin
by Jeanette Eaton, illustrated by Henry Pitz
from William Morrow & Company
for 4th-7th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
These Happy Golden Years
Little House Series #8
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-8th grade
1944 Newbery Honor Book
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$19.99
These Happy Golden Years
Little House Series #8
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Library edition from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-8th grade
1944 Newbery Honor Book
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
This Dear-Bought Land
by Jean Lee Latham
from Harper & Row
for 3rd-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$56.00 (1 in stock)
Three Names
by Patricia MacLachlan, illustrated by Alexander Pertzoff
from HarperCollins
for 2nd-4th grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
Thunder Rolling in the Mountains
by Scott O'Dell & Elizabeth Hall
from Houghton Mifflin
for 4th-8th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
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