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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10,000 Days of Thunder
by Philip Caputo
1st edition from Atheneum
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1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving
by Catherine O'Neill Grace
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1812: The War and the World
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33 Roads to the White House
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Abe Lincoln Gets His Chance
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Abe Lincoln Grows Up
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Abraham Lincoln in Peace and War
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Across the Wide & Lonesome Prairie
Dear America
by Kristiana Gregory
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Fictional historical journal for 3rd-6th grade
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Addy Learns a Lesson
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Adventures in the Wilderness
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Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Sterling Classics
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Adventures of Tom Sawyer
by Mark Twain
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Adventures of Tom Sawyer
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Air War Against Hitler's Germany
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Alaska Gold Rush
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Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr
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All About Aviation
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America During Four Wars
by Earl Schenck Miers & Felix Sutton
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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
by Jim Callan
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America in the 1970s
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America in the 1990s
by George Ochoa
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America in the Time of George Washington
by Sally Senzell Isaacs
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America is Born
A History for Peter #1
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America Moves Forward
A History for Peter #3
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America's Ethan Allen
by Stewart H. Holbrook; illustrated by Lynd Ward
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1950 Caldecott Honor Book
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America's First World War
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America's Lost Dream
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America's Robert E. Lee
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American Adventures
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American Fairy Tales
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American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Americans - 12 Volume Set
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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 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
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American Heroes of the 20th Century
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American Indian Story
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American Indian Tales and Legends
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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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American Revolution
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Americans Before Columbus
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1952 Newbery Honor Book
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Amerigo Vespucci
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Andrew Carnegie
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Andrew Carnegie and the Age of Steel
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Andrew Jackson: Soldier and Statesman
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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
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Answering the Cry for Freedom
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Apache Land
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Appomattox
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Archie's War
by Marcia Williams
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Architects
Colonial American Craftsmen
by Leonard Everett Fisher
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Art of the Southeastern Indians
by Shirley Glubok
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Ashley Bryan: Words to My Life's Song
by Ashley Bryan
First Edition from Atheneum
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At Her Majesty's Request
by Walter Dean Myers
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2000 NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book
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by Sonia Bleeker, illustrated by Kisa Sasaki
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Balboa: Swordsman and Conquistador
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by Susan Lee
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Battle for Quebec
North Star Books #38
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Battle of Lake Erie, September 10, 1813
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Battle of Yorktown
by Thomas J. Fleming
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Bay of the North
by Ronald Syme
from William Morrow & Company
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Beckoning Hills
Land of the Free Series
by Joseph H. Gage, illustrated by Floyd Torbert
1st edition from John C. Winston
Historical fiction for 6th-10th grade
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Before Columbus
by Charles C. Mann
from Atheneum
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Before Columbus
by Charles C. Mann
from Atheneum
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Behave Yourself, Bethany Brant
by Patricia Beatty
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Ben Franklin of Old Philadelphia
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Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin
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Biography for 1st-6th grade
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Betsy and Joe
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Betsy Ross and the Flag
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Betsy Ross: Girl of Old Philadelphia
Childhood of Famous Americans
by Ann Weil, illustrated by Al Fiorentino
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Biography for 3rd-6th grade
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Big Annie of Calumet
by Jerry Stanley
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Big Book of Cowboys
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