"Tue Srory or Manxiyp." By Hen-drink van Loon, (Harraps, 12s. 6d.)
Mr. van Loon's book might be called "H. G. Wells's without tears," were it possible to assoviato" the reading of Mr, Wells's "Outline of History" with anything but extreme pleasure. "The Story of Mankind" is an effort to do for younger children what My. Wells did with such zest and individwiality for our youth. Unfortunately, Mr. van Loon is not, as Mr. Wells is, a character. He is quite devoid of that strong individuality which exhibits itself in such characteristic praise and- blame throughout Mr. Wells's work. Instead: of this vehement personal standpoint he brings to his work patience, a jour-rialist's talent for headlines and "arresting" phrases, a pleasant manner of familiarity, and an, acquaintance, not with first-hand authorities, but with the standard histories of the world.
No man could write such a book as this and not provoke disagrecment. Mr. van Loon, however, makes vs question not his opinions but often his facts. For instance, in his chapter on the Renaissance he describes the bonfire of vanities held, at Savonarola's instigation, at Florence, and then continues But when the ashes cooled down, the people began to realize what they had lost. This terrible fanatic had made them destroy that which they had come to love above all things. They turned against him, Savonaroli -was thrown into gaol. He was torture ed. But he refused to repent for anything he had done.
Could anything be more misleading to a child than this picture of a gloomy crowd of Florentines, watching the ashes of their trinkets, and immediately running off amd torturing the prophet? Mr. van Loon gives no hint of the inner quarrels which lie behind Savonarela's popularity and disgrace; no hint of the relative position of the great Dominican and the Medici, none of the history of Florence without which neither can be understood. Mr. van Loon is, in short, a good reporter but a bad historian. He has little sense of perspective—he can compare the enthasiasn for learning and the art of antiquity felt by Renascent Italy to the modern "craze" for bicycles or metin-e cars; and he is not very trustworthy as a guide to the relative importance of civilizations or mo' ments; for example, he ignores almost completely the extraordin-significance of Christian missieas. His book is.really a picture-book. It is packed with outline drawings, little sketches, some colour-pjates"in which he attempts, 'n a kind of shorthand, to give chil dren pictures of the different subjects of which he treats. They are much hotier than his text, and might well prove an. incentive study; but we hope the children will have something more imaginative to read than Mr. van Loon's cosmic gossip. prohibited without permission.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.