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1. The Setting of the Stage 3
2. Our Earliest Ancestors 9
3. Prehistoric Man Begins to Make Things for
Himself 13
4. The Egyptians Invent the Art of Writing and the Record
of History Begins 17
5. The Beginning of Civilisation in the Valley of the
Nile 22
6. The Rise and Fall of Egypt 27
7. Mesopotamia, the Second Centre of Eastern
Civilisation 29
8. The Sumerian Nail Writers, Whose Clay Tablets Tell
Us the Story of Assyria and Babylonia, the Great Semitic
Melting-Pot 32
9. The Story of Moses, the Leader of the Jewish
People 38
10. The Phœnicians, Who Gave Us Our Alphabet 42
11. The Indo-European Persians Conquer the Semitic and the
Egyptian World 44
12. The People of the Ægean Sea Carried the Civilisation of
Old Asia Into the Wilderness of Europe 48
13. Meanwhile the Indo-European Tribe of the Hellenes Was
Taking Possession of Greece 54
14. The Greek Cities That Were Really States 59
15. The Greeks Were the First People to Try the Difficult
Experiment of Self-Government 62
16. How the Greeks Lived 66
17. The Origins of the Theatre, the First Form of Public
Amusement 71
18. How the Greeks Defended Europe Against an Asiatic
Invasion and Drove the Persians Back Across the Ægean
Sea 74
19. How Athens and Sparta Fought a Long and Disastrous War
for the Leadership of Greece 81
20. Alexander the Macedonian Establishes a Greek
World-Empire, and What Became of This High Ambition 83
21. A Short Summary of Chapters 1 to 20 85
22. The Semitic Colony of Carthage on the Northern Coast of
Africa and the Indo-European City of Rome on the West Coast
of Italy Fought Each Other for the Possession of the Western
Mediterranean and Carthage Was Destroyed 88
23. How Rome Happened 105
24. How the Republic of Rome, After Centuries of Unrest and
Revolution, Became an Empire 109
25. The Story of Joshua of Nazareth, Whom the Greeks Called
Jesus 119
26. The Twilight of Rome 124
27. How Rome Became the Centre of the Christian
World 131
28. Ahmed, the Camel Driver, Who Became the Prophet of the
Arabian Desert, and Whose Followers Almost Conquered the
Entire Known World for the Greater Glory of Allah, the “Only
True God” 138
29. How Charlemagne, the King of the Franks, Came to Bear
the Title of Emperor and Tried to Revive the Old Ideal of
World-Empire 144
30. Why the People of the Tenth Century Prayed the Lord to
Protect Them from the Fury of the Norsemen 150
31. How Central Europe, Attacked from Three Sides, Became
an Armed Camp and Why Europe Would Have Perished Without
Those Professional Soldiers and Administrators Who Were Part
of the Feudal System 155
32. Chivalry 159
33. The Strange Double Loyalty of the People of the Middle
Ages, and How It Led to Endless Quarrels Between the Popes
and the Holy Roman Emperors 162
34. But All These Different Quarrels Were Forgotten When
the Turks Took the Holy Land, Desecrated the Holy Places
and Interfered Seriously with the Trade from East to West.
Europe Went Crusading 168
35. Why the People of the Middle Ages Said That “City Air
Is Free Air” 174
36. How the People of the Cities Asserted Their Right to Be
Heard in the Royal Councils of Their Country 184
37. What the People of the Middle Ages Thought of the World
in Which They Happened to Live 191
38. How the Crusades Once More Made the Mediterranean a
Busy Centre of Trade and How the Cities of the Italian
Peninsula Became the Great Distributing Centre for the
Commerce with Asia and Africa 198
39. People Once More Dared to Be Happy Just Because They
Were Alive. They Tried to Save the Remains of the Older and
More Agreeable Civilisation of Rome and Greece and They
Were so Proud of Their Achievements That They Spoke of a
“Renaissance” or Re-birth of Civilisation 206
40. The People Began to Feel the Need of Giving
Expression to Their Newly Discovered Joy of Living. They
Expressed Their Happiness in Poetry and in Sculpture
and in Architecture and Painting, and in the Books They
Printed 219
41. But Now That People Had Broken Through the Bonds of
Their Narrow Mediæval Limitations, They Had to Have More
Room for Their Wanderings. The European World Had Grown Too
Small for Their Ambitions. It was the Time of the Great
Voyages of Discovery 224
42. Concerning Buddha and Confucius 241
43. The Progress of the Human Race is Best Compared to a
Gigantic Pendulum Which Forever Swings Forward and Backward.
The Religious Indifference and the Artistic and Literary
Enthusiasm of the Renaissance Were Followed by the Artistic
and Literary Indifference and the Religious Enthusiasm of
the Reformation 251
44. The Age of the Great Religious Controversies 262
45. How the Struggle Between the “Divine Right of
Kings” and the Less Divine but More Reasonable “Right of
Parliament” Ended Disastrously for King Charles I 279
46. In France, on the Other Hand, the “Divine Right of
Kings” Continued with Greater Pomp and Splendor Than Ever
Before and the Ambition of the Ruler Was Only Tempered by
the Newly Invented Law of the “Balance of Power” 296
47. The Story of the Mysterious Muscovite Empire
Which Suddenly Burst upon the Grand Political Stage of
Europe 301
48. Russia and Sweden Fought Many Wars to Decide Who Shall
Be the Leading Power of Northeastern Europe 308
49. The Extraordinary Rise of a Little State in a Dreary
Part of Northern Germany, Called Prussia 313
50. How the Newly Founded National or Dynastic States of
Europe Tried to Make Themselves Rich and What Was Meant by
the Mercantile System 317
51. At the End of the Eighteenth Century Europe Heard
Strange Reports of Something Which Had Happened in the
Wilderness of the North American Continent. The Descendants
of the Men Who Had Punished King Charles for His Insistence
upon His “Divine Rights” Added a New Chapter to the Old
Story of the Struggle for Self-Government 323
52. The Great French Revolution Proclaims the Principles of
Liberty, Fraternity and Equality Unto All the People of the
Earth 334
53. Napoleon 349
54. As Soon as Napoleon Had Been Sent to St. Helena,
the Rulers Who So Often Had Been Defeated by the Hated
“Corsican” Met at Vienna and Tried to Undo the Many
Changes Which Had Been Brought About by the French
Revolution 361
55. They Tried to Assure the World an Era of Undisturbed
Peace by Suppressing All New Ideas. They Made the Police-Spy
the Highest Functionary in the State and Soon the Prisons
of All Countries Were Filled With Those Who Claimed That
People Have the Right to Govern Themselves as They See
Fit 373
56. The Love of National Independence, However, Was Too
Strong to Be Destroyed in This Way. The South Americans Were
the First to Rebel Against the Reactionary Measures of the
Congress of Vienna. Greece and Belgium and Spain and a Large
Number of Other Countries of the European Continent Followed
Suit and the Nineteenth Century Was Filled with the Rumor of
Many Wars of Independence 381
57. But While the People of Europe Were Fighting for Their
National Independence, the World in Which They Lived Had
Been Entirely Changed by a Series of Inventions, Which Had
Made the Clumsy Old Steam-Engine of the Eighteenth Century
the Most Faithful and Efficient Slave of Man 402
58. The New Engines Were Very Expensive and Only People of
Wealth Could Afford Them. The Old Carpenter or Shoemaker Who
Had Been His Own Master in His Little Workshop Was Obliged
to Hire Himself Out to the Owners of the Big Mechanical
Tools, and While He Made More Money than Before, He Lost His
Former Independence and He Did Not Like That 413
59. The General Introduction of Machinery Did Not Bring
About the Era of Happiness and Prosperity Which Had Been
Predicted by the Generation Which Saw the Stage Coach
Replaced by the Railroad. Several Remedies Were Suggested,
but None of These Quite Solved the Problem 420
60. But the World Had Undergone Another Change Which Was
of Greater Importance Than Either the Political or the
Industrial Revolutions. After Generations of Oppression and
Persecution, the Scientist Had at Last Gained Liberty of
Action and He Was Now Trying to Discover the Fundamental
Laws Which Govern the Universe 427
61. A Chapter of Art 433
62. The Last Fifty Years, Including Several Explanations
and a Few Apologies 446
63. The Great War, Which Was Really the Struggle for a New
and Better World 456
64. Animated Chronology 467
65. Concerning the Pictures 473
66. An Historical Reading List for Children 475
67. Index 484