View source for The Story of Mankind

{{Short description|1921 book by Hendrik Willem van Loon}}
{{for|the 1957 film|The Story of Mankind (film)}}
{{Infobox book 
| name          = The Story of Mankind
| title_orig    = 
| translator    = 
| image         = The Story of Mankind.jpg
| caption = 
| author        = [[Hendrik Willem van Loon]]
| illustrator   = [[Hendrik Willem van Loon]]
| cover_artist  = 
| country       = United States
| language      = English
| series        = 
| genre         = [[Children's literature]]
| publisher     = [[H. Liveright]]
| release_date  = 1921
| media_type    = Print ([[Hardcover|Hardback]] & [[Paperback]])
| pages         = 529 pp (hardback)<ref>{{cite news|last1=Gurdon|first1=Meghan Cox|title=Book Review: 'The Story of Mankind,' by Hendrik Willem van Loon|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303997604579238151381647412|work=Wall Street Journal|date=December 6, 2013}}</ref><br>280 pp (paperback)
| preceded_by   = 
| followed_by   = 
}}
'''''The Story of Mankind''''' is a book written and illustrated by Dutch-American journalist, professor, and author [[Hendrik Willem van Loon]]. It was published in 1921. In 1922, it was awarded the [[Newbery Medal]] for an outstanding contribution to [[children's literature]]. This was the first year the Newbery Medal was awarded.

Written for Van Loon's children, ''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 religious groups|major religions]], and the formation of the modern [[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?".

Van Loon published an updated edition in 1926 which included an extra essay, "After Seven Years", about the effects of [[World War I]] and another update in 1938 with a new [[epilogue]]. Since Van Loon's death in 1944, extensive additions were included in ''The Story of Mankind'', initially by van Loon's son, Gerrit van Loon. The 2014 version ({{ISBN|978-0-87140-865-5}}) by Robert Sullivan covers events up to the early 2010s.

==Adaptation==
In 1957, a feature film [[The Story of Mankind (1957 film)|with the same title]] was released, based on the book. It stars [[Ronald Colman]] and an all-star cast, featuring, among others, the [[Marx Brothers]].

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Wikisource|1=Index:Van Loon--The Story of Mankind.djvu|2=The Story of Mankind}}

==External links==
* {{Gutenberg book|46399}}
*[https://archive.org/search.php?query=title%3Athe%20story%20of%20mankind%20creator%3Ahendrik%20-contributor%3Agutenberg ''The Story of Mankind''] at Internet Archive
*{{librivox book|title=The Story of Mankind|author=Hendrik van Loon}}

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{{succession box|title=[[Newbery Medal|Newbery Medal recipient]]|before=''(none)''|after=''[[The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle]]''|years=[[1922 in literature|1922]]}}
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{{Newbery Medal}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Story of Mankind, The}}
[[Category:1921 children's books]]
[[Category:20th-century history books]]
[[Category:Children's books adapted into films]]
[[Category:Children's history books]]
[[Category:Newbery Medal–winning works]]
[[Category:Universal history books]]


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