We live under the shadow of a giant question mark.
Who are we?
Where do we come from?
Whither are we bound?
Slowly, but with persistent courage, we have been pushing this question mark further and further towards that distant line, beyond the horizon, where we hope to find our answer.
The winner of the first Newbery Medal in 1922 was “The Story of Mankind” by Hendrick Willem van Loon. It is a book about the origins and rise of mankind and tells all about history. Now, this book has been updated since its original release in 1921. It includes issues such as the Vietnam War and space exploration. I decided to review the original portion of the book, since that is my goal — to bring you reviews of the original texts.
This book begins with the author’s thoughts on how our planet came to be the object that it is. The text reads much like my understanding of the Big Bang theory. The author describes the rise of man like that of evolution — from insignificant water creature to fish and then eventually from plain mammal to human. From there, the author proceeds to talk about the rise of every culture which played an important part of our shared world history, such as the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans. He talks about Moses as an historical figure and about the building of the pyramids. He talks about the rise of the church and its relation to Rome, as well as Charlemagne and the Roman Empire. Religious warfare in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is touched on and so is the American Revolution. Just about every major historical event in the world up through the beginning of the 1920’s is covered. Towards the end of the original text, van Loon includes a chapter about art and its development through the ages.
I have to say that this book was a little confusing even for me. The vocabulary is very broad, and for a college graduate to say that it was confusing, well that just leads me to wonder what age this book targets. It is children’s literature but I, an adult, had difficulty with it. That is quite interesting to me. I have no doubt that a child could understand this book better than I; however, I stand by my opinion that it is definitely for the advanced.
The author’s views on the rise of man from water creature of course leads me to believe that he was a man of strong science. Being a person with religious views, I can not help but disagree. Yet later on in his text, he talks about Genesis and G-d and other religious figures such as Mohammed and Buddha. You can see why I found this book so disconcerting.
I would not recommend this book to the very young, but maybe to the middle school-aged child. I would, however, recommend this book to a child or even an adult who is interested in one man’s views of world history.
1922 Newbery Honor Books
- “The Great Quest” by Charles Hawes
- “Cedric the Forester” by Bernard Marshall
- “The Old Tobacco Shop: A True Account of What Befell a Little Boy in Search of Adventure” by William Bowen
- “The Golden Fleece and The Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles” by Padraic Colum
- “The Windy Hill” by Cornelia Meigs