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The Story of Mankind | 
 enlarge | Author: Hendrik Willem Van Loon
Publisher: Wilder Publications
Category: Book
List Price: $13.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  28 reviews
Sales Rank: 312893
Media: Paperback
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 296
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.3 x 0.8
ISBN: 1604594128
Dewey Decimal Number: 920
EAN: 9781604594126
ASIN: 1604594128
Publication Date: June 22, 2008
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Amazon.com Review
Anyone who can chronicle world history from 500,000 B.C. to present times--and do so in a lively, entertaining style--deserves a medal. Luckily, the bestowers of the very first Newbery Medal in 1922 thought so, too. The warm, personable tone of Hendrik Willem van Loon's writing lends itself to true learning in a way that stern, dry textbooks never do. In the introduction, he describes climbing a tower in Rotterdam in his youth. Years later, the perspective at the top inspired the author to develop a metaphor of history as a "mighty Tower of Experience, which Time has built amidst the endless fields of bygone ages." This genuinely enjoyable charmer, for history buffs and the historically challenged alike, covers human history from prehistoric times, when our earliest ancestors were learning to communicate with grunts, right through to the issues of the latter 20th century: gay rights, Arab-Israeli conflicts, and health and fitness. Revised and updated several times since 1921, van Loon's inviting classic is filled with stories (and witty parenthetical asides) that bring history alive. His pen-and-ink illustrations, maps, and animated chronology contribute to the cozy, round the fireplace aspect of the book. (Ages 12 and older) --Emilie Coulter
Product Description
The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon was the first book to be awarded the Newbery Medal for an outstanding contribution to children's literature. Written for his grandchildren, The Story of Mankind intermingles personal anecdotes with the history of Western civilization, covering the development of writing, art, and architecture, the rise of major religions, and the formation of the modern nation-state. Van Loon explains that he selected what to and what not to include by asking the question: Did the person or event in question perform an act without which the entire history of civilization would have been different? Well written, informative, and vastly entreating.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 23 more reviews...
 The Story Of Mankind October 11, 2008
The first 100 pages of this book are entertaining. He writes in a way that keeps you interested up to a point. I am an avid reader and this book took me many months to finish. I didn't even want to finish it but always feel compelled to do so. History repeats itself and after so many chapters of war I just didn't care anymore. After reading this book I felt that desiring peace in a time of war is hardly possible. Looking back over our history made this clear-humans, power, and violence go hand in hand.
 The Story of Mankind Review June 28, 2008
This book is a wonderful panoramic description of the rise of civilization and its difficulties and successes over the ages. I highly recommend it for all ages. It is still as fresh as when I first read it in 1952.
 Partisan update November 11, 2007
18 out of 23 found this review helpful
Van Loon's book has been a staple of family reading hour for decades, and more recently it has received renewed circulation among homeschooling families. Originally written in 1921, this story of civilization has been continuously updated, not always profitably. What's below is an excerpt from the current edition:
"The civil rights movement escaped another defeat when the Reagan administration's attempt to grant tax exemptions to schools that discriminate against blacks failed. The economic future of young blacks remained bleak, as they continued to suffer the highest unemployment rate in the United States, while the government reduced many of the welfare programs that had helped the poor subsist."
Readers seeking a less partisan history are advised to find an older edition or to obtain E.H. Gombrich's excellent A Little History of the World, recently released by Yale University Press in an English edition.
A Nostalgic Great April 21, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I first read this book when I was in the second grade, and everytime I read it, it gets better and better. The stories are well written and easy to read, and it covers all the topics essential for a young child to know. Even though it is over 400 pages long, the book goes by as quick as a Dr. Seuss book. Everyone should read it.
Bad Publication of a Good Story April 6, 2007
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
This copy of the story is very poorly published (my version is from Hard Press). One example - there is a TOC (table of contents) with about 67 chapters listed (a recollection, as I have already returned my book). The chapter titles in the TOC do not correspond with the titles at the beginning of the chapters, but to a description of each chapter. All of the chapters listed in the TOC are not in the book, there are only about 44 in the book, only the first part of The Story of Mankind. I sent mine back and will look for a different edition.
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