The Story of Mankind

The Story of Mankind

Author	Hendrik Willem van Loon
Illustrator	Hendrik Willem van Loon
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Children's literature
Publisher	H. Liveright
Publication date	1921
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	505 pp
ISBN	NA

The Story of Mankind was written and illustrated by Dutch-American journalist, professor, and author Hendrik Willem van Loon and published in 1921. In 1922, it was the first book to be awarded the Newbery Medal for an outstanding contribution to children's literature.

Written for his children (Hansje and Willem), The Story of Mankind tells in brief chapters the history of western civilization beginning with primitive man, covering the development of writing, art, and architecture, the rise of major religions, and the formation of the modern (for 1921) nation-state. Van Loon explains in the book how he selected what and what not to include by subjecting all materials to the question: Did the person or event in question perform an act without which the entire history of civilization would have been different?

After its first edition, Van Loon had another edition published later in the 1920s which included an extra essay, called "After Seven Years" about the effects of World War I. Since van Loon's death in 1944, The Story of Mankind has been added to extensively by his son, Gerrit van Loon. The most recent version by John M. Merriman (1999) covers events up to the late 1990s (ISBN 9780871401755).

Adaptation

In 1957 a film was made based on the book, titled The Story of Mankind, starring Ronald Colman and an all-star cast, featuring, among others, the Marx Brothers.

External links

• The Story of Mankind at Project Gutenberg Plain text.
• The Story of Mankind, available at Internet Archive. Scanned, illustrated books.
• The Story of Mankind, available at LibriVox. LibriVox provides free audiobooks from the public domain.