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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13 Colonies: Georgia
by Roberta Wiener and James R. Arnold
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20th Century Wars
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Abe Lincoln
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Abe Lincoln Grows Up
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Abe Lincoln Grows Up
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Abraham Lincoln's World
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Across Five Aprils
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Across Five Aprils
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After the War
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Air Raid - Pearl Harbor!
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Al Capone Does My Shirts
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Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales #6
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Album of the Civil War
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All He Knew
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America and Vietnam
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America from the Beginning - Student Manual
by Joshua Franklin, Debbie Lawrence
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America in the 1900s and 1910s
Decades of American History
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America in the 1930s
Decades of American History
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America in the 1970s
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America in the 1990s
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America's Fascinating Indian Heritage
by James A. Maxwell
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America's God and Country
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America's War Heroes
by Marilyn Boyer
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$10.39
America: The First 350 Years - MP3 CD
by Steve Wilkins
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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 10
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American Heritage History of the Indian Wars
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American Heroes of the 20th Century
Landmark Giant #14
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American History in Verse
by Burton Stevenson
from Bob Jones University Press
Poetry for 3rd-Adult
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American Indian Tales and Legends
by Vladimir Hulpach, illustrated by Miloslav Troup
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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 Presidents & Presidential First Ladies Notebooking Pages
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American Revolution
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by Bruce Bliven
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American Waterways: Canal Days
by Jeanne Munn Bracken, ed.
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Americans Before Columbus
by Elizabeth Baity, illustrated by C.B. Falls
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1952 Newbery Honor Book
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Amethyst Ring
by Scott O'Dell
from Houghton Mifflin
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Amistad Slave Revolt and American Abolition
by Karen Zeinert
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Amistad: A Long Road to Freedom
by Walter Dean Myers
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Amos Fortune, Free Man
by Elizabeth Yates, illustrated by Nora S. Unwin
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1951 Newbery Medal winner
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Anne Frank: Beyond the Diary
by Ruud van der Rol & Rian Verhoeven
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Anne Frank: Beyond the Diary
by Ruud van der Rol & Rian Verhoeven
from Scholastic Inc.
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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
Book Club Edition from Nelson Doubleday, Inc.
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Anpao
by Jamake Highwater
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1978 Newbery Honor Book
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Apache Land
by Ross Santee
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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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Atlas of North American Exploration
by Glyndwr Williams, William H. Goetzmann
Oklahoma Paperbacks Ed from University of Oklahoma Press
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Aztec and Maya Myths
by Karl Taube
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B. Franklin, Printer
by David A. Adler
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Balloon Boy of San Francisco
by Dorothy Kupcha Leland
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Battle of Lexington
by Jonas Clark
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Battle of Salerno
Italy, September 1943-1945
by Irving Werstein, with maps by Ava Morgan
First Edition from Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.
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Battle of Seattle
by Douglas Bond
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Battle of the Little Bighorn
by Mark Henckel
1st edition from Falcon Press Publishing
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Before Columbus
by Charles C. Mann
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Before Columbus
by Charles C. Mann
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
Behind Enemy Lines
Sterling Point Books
by H.R. DeMallie
from Sterling Publishing Co.
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Behind the Blue and Gray
by Delia Ray
from Scholastic Inc.
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$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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Betsy and Joe
by Maud Hart Lovelace, illustrated by Vera Neville
15th Printing from Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.
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$45.00 (1 in stock)
Betty Before X
by Ilyasah Shabazz with Renee Watson
from Square Fish Publishing
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$8.99
Big Annie of Calumet
by Jerry Stanley
from Hampton-Brown
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Billy Yank - Coloring Book
by Alan Archambault
from Bellerophon Books
Coloring Book for 4th-8th grade
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Biography of James A. Garfield
Sons of Liberty Series
by William Thayer
from A Beka Books
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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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Black Heroes of the American Revolution
by Burke Davis
1992 Odyssey Classics edition from Clarion Books
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Black Man in America
from Franklin Watts
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$7.50 (1 in stock)
Blood on the River: James Town, 1607
by Elisa Carbone
Reprint from Puffin Books
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$8.99
Blowing-Wand
Land of the Free Series
by Elsie Reif Ziegler, illustrated by Jacob Landau
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Historical fiction for 6th-10th grade
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Bold Journey
by Charles Bohner
from Sandpiper Books
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Bold Journey
by Charles Bohner
from Houghton Mifflin
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$4.00 (2 in stock)
Bomb
by Steve Sheinkin
First Edition from Flash Point
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2013 Newbery Honor Book, 2013 Robert F. Sibert Medal winner
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Bonanza Girl
by Patricia Beatty
from Sonlight Curriculum, Ltd.
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$6.00 (4 in stock)
Bonhoeffer: The Cost of Freedom - Audio Drama (CD)
from Tyndale House
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$17.99
Book of Discovery
by M. B. Synge
from Yesterday's Classics
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$20.95
Book Thief
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$14.99
Boris
by Jaap Ter Haar
from Inheritance Publications
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$11.95
Borrowed House
Bethlehem Books Young Adult Bookshelf
by Hilda Van Stockum
from Purple House Press
Historical Fiction for 7th-10th grade
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$13.95
Boston
from Crescent Books
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in Landmarks & Symbols of the United States (Location: HISV-LANUS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Bound for America
Great Journeys
by Milton Meltzer
from Benchmark Books
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$4.50 (1 in stock)
Boy in the Alamo
by Margaret Cousins
from Corona Publishing Co.
Historical fiction for 4th-9th grade
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Boy in the Alamo
by Margaret Cousins
from Veritas Press
Historical fiction for 4th-9th grade
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$19.00
Boy's War
by David Michell
1st edition from OMF
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in WWII: Pacific Theater (Location: HISA-20WW2P)
$4.00 (2 in stock)
Boys in the Boat adapted for Young Readers
by Daniel James Brown, adapted by Gregory Mone
from Penguin Putnam
for 6th-9th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$17.99
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