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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | J 909 VAN | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
First published in 1921, The Story of Mankind has charmed generations of readers of all ages with its warmth, simplicity, and wisdom. Beginning with the origins of human life and sweeping forward to illuminate all of history, Hendrik van Loon's incomparable prose enlivens the characters and events of every age. His unique ability to convey history as a fascinating tale of adventure has endeared the book to countless readers and has accorded it a unique place in publishing history. This new version, which retains van Loon's original illustrations, has been brought up to date by John Merriman, professor of history at Yale University. It incorporates the most important developments of the last two decades-including space exploration, the emergence of the developing countries, the Cold War, the Internet, and the astounding advances we have witnessed in medicine and science - and looks forward into the prospect of the twenty-first century.
Author Notes
Hendrik Willem van Loon was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands on January 14, 1882. He immigrated to the United States in 1902 and attended Cornell University, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1905. After graduating, he became a news correspondent for the Associated Press. He reported from Russia on the Russian Revolution in 1905 and from Belgium during World War I in 1914. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Munich in 1911. His dissertation, The Fall of the Dutch Republic, was published as a book in 1913. He lectured at Cornell University on European History from 1915-1917 and served as the Department Head of Social Sciences at Antioch College, Ohio from 1921-1922.
He was an author, historian, and illustrator. His wrote about 40 books during his lifetime including The Rise of the Dutch Kingdom, The Golden Book of the Dutch Navigators, Report to Saint Peter, and The Story of Mankind, which received the Newberry Medal in 1922. During World War II, he broadcast speeches to the Netherlands. For his contributions during the war, Queen Wilhelmina, the Dutch queen, knighted him in 1942. He died on March 11, 1944 at the age of 62.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Horn Book Review
Is the first-ever Newbery Medalwinner improved by new chapters, including one on "The Election That Almost Wasn't: George Bush vs. Al Gore and the Saga of the Crazy-Sounding Hanging Chad?" You decide. Last revised in 1999, van Loon's 1921 title is here updated by Robert Sullivan to include world events through 2012. Timeline. Ind. (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Further cementing its status as a living classic, the first Newbery winner (1922) returns sporting an eighth update. Following the practice of van Loon himself and subsequent co-authors over the years, Sullivan leaves the original text, with its often puckish line drawings, virtually untouched and seamlessly appends topical chapters (12 in all) written in the same conversational style. The previous update having appeared in 1999, Sullivan covers major events from the Y2K panic and 9/11 to Barack Obama's re-election in 2012. He also glances at China (in a chapter characteristically titled "China Is Back / Not that it ever went away") and offers overviews of the Arab Spring and the late worldwide economic "Downturn." On more thematic notes, he also comments in a cautionary way on the rise of new social media and more approvingly on how the notion that governments owe official apologies for historical atrocities committed against minority or other groups has recently taken hold. Readers of the 77 chapters that precede the new content will find that though some of the language ("Wherever food was plentiful, thither man has travelled") and, surprisingly rarely, attitudes are dated, the vivid storytelling and steady focus on the human element exert an appeal that hasn't aged a bit. Still valid in broad outline if not detail and, as ever, a grand and thought-provoking read. Those early Newbery voters knew value when they saw it. (timeline) (Nonfiction. 11-14)]]]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
