I got this from eBay with a very tattered cover. Not surprising as the book, first published in 1943, was printed in 1947. I’ve managed to restore the dust cover, using strips of 80gsm paper , water colours, black Sharpie and PVA adhesive, resulting in a reasonable job without spending more hours on it.
You can see it cost 18 shillings at the time. Taking inflation into account, that would be £90 in today’s sterling. but then, it has 600 pages with over a hundred pictures by the author in colour and black and white.
I already had Van Loon’s Story of Mankind (£1.50 from Oxfam) and his Report to Saint Peter (50p, ditto).
Opening the first at random I find a chapter called “The Rise of Rome”, which sounds like a traditional school history book. But it starts with a banner headline HOW ROME HAPPENED, and continues :
The Roman Empire was an accident. No one planned it. It “happened.” No famous statesman or general or cut-throat ever got up and said “Friends, Romans, Citizens, we must found an Empire. Follow me and we shall conquer all the land from the Gates of Hercules to Mount Taurus.
Rome produced famous generals and equally distinguished statesmen and cut-throats, and Roman armies fought all over the world. But the Roman Empire-making was done without a preconceived plan. The average Roman was a very matter-of-fact man. He disliked theories about government. When someone began to recite “eastward the course of Roman Empire, etc.,” etc., he hastily left the Forum.
So, what to say about Hendrik’s text? Here’s the start of Chapter IV of his Lives. We see that his book is a combination of real and imagined autobiography.
You may be inspired by van Loon’s style and genius enough for several more posts. Several of his books can be downloaded or read online via Project Gutenberg.
a wayfarer’s notes 