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The Story of Mankind [SCM]

by Hendrik Willem van Loon Author

(From Amazon): History is the mighty Tower of Experience, which Time has built amidst the endless fields of bygone ages. It is no easy task to reach the top of this ancient structure and get the benefit of the full view. There is no elevator, but young feet are strong and it can be done. -Hendrik Van Loon, in the Foreword to The Story of Mankind It was intended for children, and of course much of the science is hopelessly out of date, but this ambitious, even audacious attempt to offer an overview of the entirety of human history remains a breathtaking work today. A 1921 bestseller, The Story of Mankind won the first Newbery Medal in 1922, and it is no wonder: the book-which begins with the origin of life itself on our planet and the arrival of the earliest protohumans on the scene and ends with "The Last Fifty Years, Including Several Explanations and an Apology"-is abundant with an offbeat charm and packed with the author's own beautiful illustrations and maps that are alive with a fresh, delectable humor. As a document of early modern science writing, it is invaluable. As a delightfully entertaining read, it is not to be missed. AUTHOR BIO: Dutch-American author and educator Hendrik Willem van Loon (1882-1944) sold more than six million books during his lifetime, including The Story of the Bible (1923), Tolerance (1925), and America (1927). After studies at Harvard, Cornell, and the University of Munich, he had a diverse career as a popular professor of European history at Cornell and of social sciences at Antioch College, an Associated Press correspondent in revolutionary Russia and World War I Belgium, and associate editor of the Baltimore Sun from 1923 to 1924. In appreciation for his dedicated anti-Nazi writing during World War II, he was awarded the Order of Knight of the Netherlands Lion.

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Additional Details

Resource Type: Book
ISBN: 1596051787
Print Status: In Print
Chapters: 76
Pages: 556
Suggested Grades: 4th - 8th
Historical Setting: 500,000 BC - 2000 AD
Publisher: Cosimo Classics
Copyright: 2005
Written: 1921

Chapters

1 The Setting of the Stage
2 Our Earliest Ancestors
3 Prehistoric Man Begins to Make Things for Himself
4 The Egyptians Invent the Art of Writing and the Record of History Begins
5 The Beginning of Civilisation in the Valley of the Nile
6 The Rise and Fall of Egypt
7 Mesopotamia, the Second Centre of Eastern Civilisation
8 The Sumerian Nail Writers
9 The Story of Moses, the Leader of the Jewish People
10 The Phoenicians, Who Gave Us Our Alphabet
11 The Indo-European Persians Conquer the Semitic and the Egyptian World
12 The People of the Aegean Sea Carried the Civilisation of Old Asia Into the Wilderness of Europe
13 Meanwhile the Indo-European Tribe of the Hellenes Was Taking Possession of Greece
14 The Greek Cities That Were Really States
15 The Greeks Were the First People to Try the Difficult Experiment of Self-Government
16 How the Greeks Lived
17 The Origins of the Theatre, the First Form of Public Amusement
18 How the Greeks Defended Europe Against an Asiatic Invasion
19 How Athens and Sparta Fought a Long and Disastrous War
20 Alexander the Macedonian Establishes a Greek World-Empire
21 A Short Summary of Chapters 1 to 20
22 The Semitic Colony of Carthage on the Northern Coast of Africa
23 How Rome Happened
24 How the Republic of Rome, After Centuries of Unrest and Revolution, Became an Empire
25 The Story of Joshua of Nazareth, Whom the Greeks Called Jesus
26 The Twilight of Rome
27 How Rome Became the Centre of the Christian World
28 Ahmed, the Camel Driver, Who Became the Prophet of the Arabian Desert
29 How Charlemagne, the King of the Franks, Came to Bear the Title of Emperor
30 Why the People of the Tenth Century Prayed the Lord to Protect Them from the Fury of the Norsemen
31 How Central Europe, Attacked from Three Sides, Became an Armed Camp
32 Chivalry
33 The Strange Double Loyalty of the People of the Middle Ages
34 But All These Different Quarrels Were Forgotten When the Turks Took the Holy Land
35 Why the People of the Middle Ages Said That City Air Is Free Air
36 How the People of the Cities Asserted Their Right to Be Heard in the Royal Councils of Their Country
37 What the People of the Middle Ages Thought of the World in Which They Happened to Live
38 How the Crusades Once More Made the Mediterranean a Busy Centre of Trade
39 People Once More Dared to Be Happy Just Because They Were Alive
40 The People Began to Feel the Need of Giving Expression to Their Newly Discovered Joy of Living
41 But Now That People Had Broken Through the Bonds of Their Narrow Medieval Limitations
42 Concerning Buddha and Confucius
43 The Progress of the Human Race is Best Compared to a Gigantic Pendulum
44 The Age of the Great Religious Controversies
45 How the Struggle Between the Divine Right of Kings and the Less Divine but More Reasonable
46 In France, on the Other Hand, the Divine Right of Kings Continued
47 The Story of the Mysterious Muscovite Empire
48 Russia and Sweden Fought Many Wars to Decide Who Shall Be the Leading Power
49 The Extraordinary Rise of a Little State in a Dreary Part of Northern Germany
50 How the Newly Founded National or Dynastic States of Europe Tried to Make Themselves Rich
51 At the End of the Eighteenth Century Europe Heard Strange Reports
52 The Great French Revolution Proclaims the Principles of Liberty
53 Napoleon
54 As Soon as Napoleon Had Been Sent to St. Helena
55 They Tried to Assure the World an Era of Undisturbed Peace
56 The Love of National Independence, However, Was Too Strong to Be Destroyed
57 But While the People of Europe Were Fighting for Their National Independence
58 The New Engines Were Very Expensive and Only People of Wealth Could Afford Them
59 The General Introduction of Machinery Did Not Bring About the Era of Happiness
60 But the World Had Undergone Another Change
61 A Chapter of Art
62 The Last Fifty Years
63 The Great War
64 As It Ever Shall Be
65 After Seven Years
66 The United States Comes of Age
67 The Axis Partners
68 Isolationism and Appeasement
69 The Atlantic Charter
70 Global War
71 The United Nations
72 A Turbulent Peace
73 An Old Order Gives Way
74 Spaceship Earth
75 The Earth as a Global Village
76 Approaching the Year 2000

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