The Story of Mankind (Updated)  (Liveright Classics)
“The Story of Mankind…remains a marvel: a sparkling, erudite, idiosyncratic tour through the human experience from the mists of prehistory to the smoking aftermath of World War I. In van Loon's charming, virtuosic pages we meet scoundrels and ruffians and poets; we engage with Pericles, Mohammed and Metternich, Confucius and Savonarola and Voltaire; we stand amazed anew before Egyptian hieroglyphs, Gothic arches, Florentine frescoes and the steam engine. Ninety-two years on, modern accretions and all, what a pageant this charming narrator continues to offer us!” (Meghan Gurdon - The Wall Street Journal)