A review by heyt
The Story of Mankind (Illustrated) by Hendrik Willem van Loon

3.0

I was a little worried going into this since it was written 100 years ago but was pleasantly surprised at how little there was to cringe at. I liked that there was optimism about clean energy and an entire section about historical biases and critical thinking about who is writing about what. I will say that while the tone was more conversational than most history I've read there is a lot to unpack in this. Obviously it doesn't go into great detail on any one part of mankind's history but I did learn some things that were useful while watching Jeopardy! lol. I did find it a little sad at the end about his optimism for a new world knowing that in a relatively few years there would be another World War to crush that optimism. All in all I'm glad I read it and can see why it was awarded the Newbery.