The Story of Mankind

The Story of Mankind

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5
(1 Review)
The Story of Mankind by Hendrik van Loon

Published:

1921

Pages:

362

Downloads:

5,744

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The Story of Mankind

By

5
(1 Review)
The story of Western civilization from the earliest times to the beginning of the 20th century.

Book Excerpt

ree to all.

Then there were the little villages, clustering around the protecting church which once, many years ago, had been the home of their Patron Saints. In the distance we could see the leaning tower of Delft. Within sight of its high arches, William the Silent had been murdered and there Grotius had learned to construe his first Latin sentences. And still further away, the long low body of the church of Gouda, the early home of the man whose wit had proved mightier than the armies of many an emperor, the charity-boy whom the world came to know as Erasmus.

Finally the silver line of the endless sea and as a contrast, immediately below us, the patchwork of roofs and chimneys and houses and gardens and hospitals and schools and railways, which we called our home. But the tower showed us the old home in a new light. The confused commotion of the streets and the market-place, of the factories and the workshop, became the well-ordered expression of human energy and purpose. Best of all, the wide view o