ANCIENT MAN

THE BEGINNING OF CIVILIZATIONS

BY HENDRIK WILLEM VAN LOON

1922




DEDICATION To HANSJE AND WILLEM.

My darling boys,

You are twelve and eight years old. Soon you will be grown up. You will
leave home and begin your own lives. I have been thinking about that
day, wondering what I could do to help you. At last, I have had an idea.
The best compass is a thorough understanding of the growth and the
experience of the human race. Why should I not write a special
history for you?

So I took my faithful Corona and five bottles of ink and a box of
matches and a bale of paper and began to work upon the first volume. If
all goes well there will be eight more and they will tell you what you
ought to know of the last six thousand years.

But before you start to read let me explain what I intend to do.

I am not going to present you with a textbook. Neither will it be a