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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896 Items found Print
Active Filters: 7th grade (Ages 12-13), In-Stock Books & Materials
13 Colonies: Georgia
by Roberta Wiener and James R. Arnold
from Raintree
for 6th-8th grade
in Colonial America (1690-1765) (Location: HISA-17COL)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
20th Century Wars
by Robert W. Smith
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Abe Lincoln
Landmark Series
by Sterling North
from Random House
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Abe Lincoln Grows Up
by Carl Sandburg
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Abe Lincoln Grows Up
by Carl Sandburg, illustrated by James Daugherty
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Abigail Adams
by Natalie S. Bober
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Abraham Lincoln
Heroes of History
by Geoff & Janet Benge
from Emerald Books
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Abraham Lincoln's World
by Genevieve Foster, expanded by Joanna Foster
from Beautiful Feet Books
Historical Non-fiction for 7th-10th grade
1945 Newbery Honor Book
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Across America on an Emigrant Train
by Jim Murphy
from Sandpiper Books
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1994 NCTE Orbis Pictus Award
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Across Five Aprils
by Irene Hunt
from Berkley Books
Historical Fiction for 6th-9th grade
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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Adopted by Indians
by Thomas Jefferson Mayfield
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Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Puffin Classics
by Mark Twain
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Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Sterling Classics
by Mark Twain, illustrated by Scott McKowen
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Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Puffin Classics
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After the Dancing Days
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After the War
by Carol Matas
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Air Raid - Pearl Harbor!
by Theodore Taylor
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Al Capone Does My Shirts
by Gennifer Choldenko
Reprint from Puffin Books
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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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Album of the Civil War
by William Loren Katz
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All He Knew
by Helen Frost
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Amelia Earhart
Lives to Remember
by Burke Davis
from G.P. Putnam's Sons
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$14.00 (1 in stock)
America and Vietnam
by Albert Marrin
from Beautiful Feet Books
Historical Non-Fiction for 7th-10th grade
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$13.95
America from the Beginning - Student Manual
by Joshua Franklin, Debbie Lawrence
from Answers in Genesis
for 3rd-8th grade
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$29.00 (1 in stock)
America Grows Up
A History for Peter #2
by Gerald W. Johnson
from Yesterday's Classics
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
America in the 1900s and 1910s
Decades of American History
by Jim Callan
from Facts On File
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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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$35.00 (1 in stock)
America in the 1970s
from Facts On File
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America in the 1990s
by George Ochoa
from Facts On File
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$9.00 (1 in stock)
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
from Reader's Digest
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
America's God and Country
by William J. Federer
from Amerisearch
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
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
from Dell Publishing
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American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Americans Volume 12
from Dell Publishing
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American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Americans Volume 2
from Dell Publishing
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American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Americans Volume 4
from Dell Publishing
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American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Americans Volume 5
from Dell Publishing
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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
from Dell Publishing
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American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Americans Volume 9
from Dell Publishing
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American Heritage History of the Indian Wars
by Robert M. Utley, Wilcomb E. Washburn
Revised from American Heritage Publishing Co.
for 6th-Adult
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
American Heroes of the 20th Century
Landmark Giant #14
by Harold & Doris Faber
from Random House
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in Landmark Giants (Location: VIN-LAN)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
American History in Verse
by Burton Stevenson
from Bob Jones University Press
Poetry for 3rd-Adult
in American History Reference (Location: HISA-REF)
$11.00
American Indian Prayer Guide
by Danette Maloof, Dean Cozzens
from Sonlight Curriculum, Ltd.
for 4th-7th grade
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$4.50 (3 in stock)
American Indian Tales and Legends
by Vladimir Hulpach, illustrated by Miloslav Troup
from Paul Hamlyn
for 4th-8th grade
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$6.00 (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 Presidents & Presidential First Ladies Notebooking Pages
from Notebooking Pages
for 3rd-8th grade
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
American Revolution
Landmark Series
by Bruce Bliven
from Random House
Historical Non-fiction for 5th-8th grade
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American Waterways: Canal Days
by Jeanne Munn Bracken, ed.
from History Compass
for 7th-12th grade
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$5.50 (1 in stock)
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)
Amethyst Ring
by Scott O'Dell
from Houghton Mifflin
for 4th-8th grade
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Amistad Slave Revolt and American Abolition
by Karen Zeinert
from Linnet Books
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in Slavery & the Underground Railroad (Location: HISA-19SL)
$6.50 (1 in stock)
Amistad: A Long Road to Freedom
by Walter Dean Myers
from Puffin Books
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
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
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$7.99
Anne Frank: Beyond the Diary
by Ruud van der Rol & Rian Verhoeven
from Puffin Books
for 7th-10th grade
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$7.50 (1 in stock)
Anne Frank: Beyond the Diary
by Ruud van der Rol & Rian Verhoeven
from Scholastic Inc.
for 6th-10th grade
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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
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$14.00 (1 in stock)
Anpao
by Jamake Highwater
from HarperCollins
for 5th-9th grade
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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Art of Keeping Cool
by Janet Taylor Lisle
from Scholastic Inc.
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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
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in Age of Exploration (1450-1700) (Location: HISA-16EXP)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Avion My Uncle Flew
by Cyrus Fisher, illustrated by Richard Floethe
from Purple House Press
for 5th-7th grade
1947 Newbery Honor Book
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$13.95
Aztec and Maya Myths
by Karl Taube
from British Museum Press
for 6th-12th grade
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Aztecs
Journey Into Civilization
by Robert Nicholson and Claire Watts
from Chelsea House Publishing
for 4th-7th grade
in Ancient America (Location: HISW-ANAM)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
B. Franklin, Printer
by David A. Adler
from Holiday House
for 6th-Adult
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$8.00 (2 in stock)
Bad News for Outlaws
by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
from Carolrhoda Books, Inc.
for 5th-7th grade
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$19.99
Balloon Boy of San Francisco
by Dorothy Kupcha Leland
from Tomato Enterprises
for 7th-9th grade
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
$9.95
Battle of Lexington
by Jonas Clark
from Nordskog Publishing
for 6th-10th grade
in American Revolution (1765-1783) (Location: HISA-18REV)
$8.50
Battle of Salerno
Italy, September 1943-1945
by Irving Werstein, with maps by Ava Morgan
First Edition from Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.
for 6th-10th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Battle of Seattle
by Douglas Bond
from P&R Publishing
for 4th-9th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$11.99
Battle of the Little Bighorn
by Mark Henckel
1st edition from Falcon Press Publishing
for 5th-8th grade
in Native Americans (Location: HISA-19NAT)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Bears of Blue River
by Charles Major
from Living Book Press
for 3rd-7th grade
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
$8.99
Before Columbus
by Charles C. Mann
from Atheneum
for 4th-8th grade
in Ancient America (Location: HISW-ANAM)
$24.99 $18.00 (1 in stock)
Before Columbus
by Charles C. Mann
from Atheneum
for 4th-8th grade
in Ancient America (Location: HISW-ANAM)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Behind Enemy Lines
Sterling Point Books
by H.R. DeMallie
from Sterling Publishing Co.
for 5th-9th grade
in WWII: European Theater (Location: HISA-20WW2E)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
Behind the Bedroom Wall
by Laura E. Williams
from Scholastic Inc.
for 5th-7th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Behind the Blue and Gray
by Delia Ray
from Scholastic Inc.
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in American Civil War (1860-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
Ben Franklin of Old Philadelphia
Landmark Series
by Margaret Cousins
from Random House
Biography for 5th-8th grade
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$5.99 $4.00 (1 in stock)
Benjamin Franklin
Heroes of History
by Geoff & Janet Benge
from Emerald Books
Biography for 4th-7th grade
in Heroes of History (Location: BIO-BENGE)
$11.99
Betsy and Joe
by Maud Hart Lovelace, illustrated by Vera Neville
15th Printing from Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.
for 6th-9th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$45.00 (1 in stock)
Big Annie of Calumet
by Jerry Stanley
1st edition
for 4th-7th grade
in Industrialization & Organized Labor (Location: HISA-19IND)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Big Annie of Calumet
by Jerry Stanley
from Hampton-Brown
for 4th-8th grade
in Industrialization & Organized Labor (Location: HISA-19IND)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Big Book of the Civil War
by Joanne Mattern
from Courage Books
for 4th-7th grade
in Oversized History Books (Location: HISW-OVER)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
Billy Yank - Coloring Book
by Alan Archambault
from Bellerophon Books
Coloring Book for 4th-8th grade
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$4.95 $3.50 (2 in stock)
Biography of James A. Garfield
Sons of Liberty Series
by William Thayer
from A Beka Books
for 5th-9th grade
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$9.50 (1 in stock)
Black Falcon
by Armstrong Sperry
from John C. Winston
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$18.00 (1 in stock)
Black Hawk, Sac Rebel
from Chelsea House Publishing
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in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Black Heroes of the American Revolution
by Burke Davis
1992 Odyssey Classics edition from Clarion Books
for 5th-8th grade
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$8.99 $4.50 (1 in stock)
Black Man in America
from Franklin Watts
for 6th-12th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
Blood on the River: James Town, 1607
by Elisa Carbone
Reprint from Puffin Books
for 4th-8th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$8.99
Blowing-Wand
Land of the Free Series
by Elsie Reif Ziegler, illustrated by Jacob Landau
from John C. Winston
Historical fiction for 6th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$18.00 (1 in stock)
Blue Birds
by Caroline Starr Rose
Dgs from Puffin Books
Narrative Poetry / Novel-In-Verse for 4th-7th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$10.99
Blue Willow
Puffin Newbery Library
by Doris Gates
from Puffin Books
for 4th-7th grade
1941 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$7.99
Bold Journey
by Charles Bohner
from Sandpiper Books
Non-fiction for 5th-8th grade
in Lewis & Clark (Location: HISA-19L&C)
$7.99
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