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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123 Items found Print
Active Filters: 10th grade (Ages 15-16), Trade Paperback, New Books & Materials
1776
by David McCullough
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Abraham Lincoln's World
by Genevieve Foster, expanded by Joanna Foster
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1945 Newbery Honor Book
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Al Capone Does My Shirts
by Gennifer Choldenko
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America and Vietnam
by Albert Marrin
from Beautiful Feet Books
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American History in Verse
by Burton Stevenson
from Bob Jones University Press
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$11.00
And There Was Light
by Jacques Lusseyran
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Anne Bradstreet
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Christian Renegades Series
by Doug Wilson
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Band of Brothers
by Stephen Ambrose, Foreword by Tom Hanks
25th anniversary from Simon and Schuster
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Battle of Lexington
by Jonas Clark
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Beginning of the Republic
A Basic History of the United States Volume 2
by Clarence B. Carson
from American Textbook Committee
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$17.00
Betty Before X
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Bridge to the Sun
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Caine Mutiny
by Herman Wouk
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1952 Pulitzer Prize Winner
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Call to Conscience
by Martin Luther King, Jr., Edited by Clayborne Carson and Kris Shepard
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Captain, My Captain
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Charis in the World of Wonders
by Marly Youmans
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Churchill
by Paul Johnson
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Citizen Soldiers
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Civil War: A Narrative - 3 Volume Set
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Code Name Verity
by Elizabeth Wein
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Colonial Experience
A Basic History of the United States Volume 1
by Clarence B. Carson
from American Textbook Committee
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Debunking Howard Zinn
by Mary Grabar
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Discoverers
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Evidence Not Seen
by Darlene Deibler Rose
from HarperCollins
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Faithful Spy
by John Hendrix
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Farewell to Manzanar
by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston
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Fiddler's Gun
by A. S. Peterson
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First Voyage to America
by Christopher Columbus
from Dover Publications
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Four Voyages
by Christopher Columbus
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George Washington's World
by Genevieve Foster, expanded by Joanna Foster and edited by Rea Berg
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1942 Newbery Honor Book
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George Whitefield
by Arnold A. Dallimore
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God and Ronald Reagan
by Paul Kengor
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God's Samurai
by Gordon Prange, with Donald Goldstein & Katherine Dillon
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Great Crash: 1929
by John Kenneth Galbraith
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Great Escape
by Paul Brickhill
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Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
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Growth of America
A Basic History of the United States Volume 4
by Clarence B. Carson
from American Textbook Committee
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$19.00
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer
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Guns of August
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Hiding Place
by Corrie Ten Boom
35th Anniversary Edition from Chosen Books
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Hitler
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If The South Had Won The Civil War
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Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
by Harriet Jacobs
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Invisible Man
by Ralph Ellison
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Jonathan Edwards
by Stephen J. Nichols
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Journey and Ordeal of Cabeza de Vaca
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Laddie
by Gene Stratton-Porter
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Land of Hope
by Wilfred M. McClay
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Last Battle
by Cornelius Ryan
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Last Bookshop in London
by Madeline Martin
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Last of the Mohicans
Leatherstocking Tales #2
by James Fenimore Cooper
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Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Biography
by William Anderson
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Life and Diary of David Brainerd
by David Brainerd
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Life of General Stonewall Jackson
by Mary Williamson
from Christian Liberty Press
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Life of George Washington
by Mary Williamson
from Christian Liberty Press
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Life of J.E.B. Stuart
by Mary Williamson
2nd edition from Christian Liberty Press
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Little House Coloring Book
Clr Csm from HarperCollins
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Little Women
by Lousia May Alcott
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Longest Day
by Cornelius Ryan
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Lovely War
by Julie Berry
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Mary McLeod Bethune
by Emma Gelders Sterne
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Mayflower Pilgrims
by Edmund J. Carpenter
2nd edition from Christian Liberty Press
Biography for 7th-10th grade
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$7.50
Mein Kampf
by Adolf Hitler, translated by Michael Ford
from Elite Minds, Inc.
Autobiography for 9th-Adult
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$29.95
Memoirs of the Second World War
by Winston S. Churchill, abridged by Denis Kelly
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Mornings on Horseback
by David McCullough
1st edition from Simon & Schuster Macmillan
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National; Book Award
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Mountain Men and Fur Traders of the Far West
by LeRoy R. Hafen & Harvey L. Carter
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My Own Lightning
by Lauren Wolk
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Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee
by David Crockett
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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Copper Lodge Library
by Frederick Douglass, annotated by Stephanie B. Meter
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Naval War of 1812
by Theodore Roosevelt
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Never Give In
Leaders in Action Series
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Night
by Elie Wiesel
Revised from Hill & Wang
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Ocean-Born Mary
by Lois Lenski
1st edition from Purple House Press
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Oregon Trail
Penguin Classics
by Francis Parkman Jr.
from Penguin Classics
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$16.00
Patriot's History of the United States
by Larry Schweikart & Michael Allen
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$28.00
Pioneers
Leatherstocking Tales #4
by James Fenimore Cooper
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Princess Ka'iulani
by Sharon Linnea
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Rabble in Arms
by Kenneth Roberts
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Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail
by Theodore Roosevelt
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Robert E. Lee the Christian
by William J. Johnstone
2nd edition from Christian Liberty Press
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Rose Under Fire
by Elizabeth Wein
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Rough Riders
by Theodore Roosevelt
from Dover Publications
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Sections and the Civil War
A Basic History of the United States Volume 3
by Clarence B. Carson
from American Textbook Committee
American History Reference for 9th-Adult
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$17.00
Self-Reliance and Essays on the Nature of Man
Copper Lodge Library
by Ralph Waldo Emerson, annotated by Stephanie B. Meter
from Classical Conversations
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$11.95
Sergeant York and the Great War
by Alvin C. York
from My Father's World
Autobiography for 7th-Adult
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$22.00
Seven Wonders of the World
by Ron Tagliapietra
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Sherwood Ring
by Elizabeth Marie Pope
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Soldier of Virginia
by Marjorie Bowen
from Inheritance Publications
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$12.95
Souls of Black Folk
by W. E. B. Du Bois
from Penguin Classics
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$14.00
Souls of Black Folk
by W. E. B. Du Bois
from Dover Publications
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$5.00
Squalls Before War
by Ned Bustard
from Veritas Press
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Stalin
by Albert Marrin
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Stories of Young Pioneers
by Violet T. Kimball
from Mountain Press
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Story of Liberty
by Charles Coffin
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$19.97 $10.00 (3 in stock)
Story of the Trapp Family Singers
by Maria Augusta Trapp
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$16.99
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