呈现于读者面前的这部《美国学生人类史》，亦名《人类的故事》，是荷兰裔美籍记者、教授兼作家房龙的经典著作，书中插图亦出自作者之手。《美国学生人类史》英文原版问世于1921年，1922年获得首届纽伯瑞儿童文学奖。1923年，著名教育出版公司麦克米伦公司出版《美国学生人类史》学生版，推荐给学校作为教材使用。1957年，据其改编的电影上市。1925年，沈性仁女士将《美国学生人类史》翻译介绍到中国，由商务印书馆出版，在国内掀起一阵房龙热。
《美国学生人类史》最初是房龙写给两位孙子的历史故事集。书中内容均按短篇章节而写，叙述西方文明是如何从原始人类发源，并进一步讲述书写文字、艺术、建筑以及主要的信仰，直至近代民族国家的兴起等。遗憾的是，房龙的这部经典儿童文学作品，在中国一直与他后来写作的《宽容》、《圣经的故事》等被当作成人阅读的人文经典。这种出版导向，使得《美国学生人类史》错失了很多青少年读者。在出版美国另一位作者维吉尔?希利尔的一套文史经典（《美国学生世界历史》、《美国学生世界地理》、《美国学生艺术史》）之后，我们决定将房龙的这部书并入希利尔校长的文史系列。并将此英汉双语版定名为《美国学生人类史》，以期引吸更多学生读者阅读此书，了解人类历史知识、同步提升英文阅读水平。
The Story of Mankind was written and illustrated by American
journalist, professor, and author Hendrik Willem van Loon and
published in 1921. In 1922, it was the first book to be awarded the
Newbery Medal for an outstanding contribution to children''s
literature.
Written for his grandchildren, The Story of Mankind tells in brief
chapters the history of Western civilization beginning with
primitive man, covering the development of writing, art, and
architecture, the rise of major religions, and the formation of the
modern for 1921 nation-state. Van Loon explains in the book how
he selected what and what not to include by subjecting all
materials to the question: Did the person or event in question
perform an act without which the entire history of civilization
would have been different? This genuinely enjoyable charmer, for
history buffs and the historically challenged alike, covers human
history from prehistoric times, when our earliest ancestors were
learning to communicate with grunts, right through to the issues of
the latter 20th century. Van Loon''s inviting classic is filled with
stories that bring history
alive. His pen-and-ink illustrations, maps, and animated chronology
contribute to the cozy, round the fireplace aspect of the book.
01 THE SETTING OF THE STAGE
人类舞台的起始
02 OUR EARLIEST ANCESTORS
我们最早的祖宗
03 PREHISTORIC MAN
历史以前的人
04 HIEROGLYPHICS
象形字
05 THE NILE VALLEY
尼罗河流域
06 THE STORY OF EGYPT
埃及的历史
07 MESOPOTAMIA
美索博达米亚
08 THE SUMERIANS
苏曼利亚人
09 MOSES
摩 西
10 THE PHOENICIANS
腓尼西亚人
11 THE INDO-EUROPEANS
印度欧罗巴人
12 THE ·GEAN SEA
伊近海
13 THE GREEKS
希腊人
14 THE GREEK CITIES
希腊都市
15 GREEK SELF-GOVERNMENT
希腊的自治政府
16 GREEK LIFE
希腊人的生活
17 THE GREEK THEATRE
希腊的戏剧
18 THE PERSIAN WARS
波斯战争
19 ATHENS vs
雅典与斯巴达之拮抗
20 ALEXANDER THE GREAT
亚历山大大王
21 A SUMMARY
概 要
22 ROME AND CARTHAGE
罗马与迦太基
23 THE RISE OF ROME
罗马之兴
24 THE ROMAN EMPIRE
罗马帝国
25 JOSHUA OF NAZARETH
拿撒勒的约书亚
26 THE FALL OF ROME
罗马之亡
27 RISE OF THE CHURCH
教会之兴
28 MOHAMMED
穆罕默德
29 CHARLEMAGNE
查尔斯大帝
30 THE NORSEMEN
诺斯人
31 FEUDALISM
封建制度
32 CHIVALRY
武士制
33 POPE vs
教皇与皇帝之对立
34 THE CRUSADES
十字军
35 THE MEDI·VAL CITY
中世纪的都市
36 MEDI·VAL SELF-GOVERNMENT
中世纪的自治制度
37 THE MEDI·VAL WORLD
中世纪的世界
38 MEDI·VAL TRADE
中世纪的商业
39 THE RENAISSANCE
文艺复兴
40 THE AGE OF EXPRESSION
表现时期
41 THE GREAT DISCOVERIES
大发见
42 THE REFORMATION
宗教改革
43 RELIGIOUS WARFARE
宗教战争
44 THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION
英国革命
45 THE BALANCE OF POWER
势力均衡
46 THE RISE OF RUSSIA
俄罗斯之兴
47 RUSSIA vs
俄罗斯与瑞典之抗衡
48 THE RISE OF PRUSSIA
普鲁士之兴
49 THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM
重商制度
50 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
美国革命
51 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
法国革命
52 NAPOLEON
拿破仑
53 THE HOLY ALLIANCE
神圣同盟
54 THE GREAT REACTION
大反动
55 NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE
民族独立
56 THE AGE OF THE ENGINE
机械时代
57 THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION
社会革命
58 EMANCIPATION
大解放
59 THE AGE OF SCIENCE
科学时代
60 ART
艺 术
61 COLONIAL EXPANSION AND WAR
殖民地的扩张与战争
62 A NEW WORLD
一个新的世界
63 AS IT EVER SHALL BE
永远是这样的
AN ANIMATED CHRONOLOGY
活的历史年表
后 记
內容試閱：
01 THE SETTING OF THE STAGE
人类舞台的起始
WE live under the shadow of a gigantic question mark.
Who are we?
Where do we come from?
Whither are we bound?
Slowly, but with persistent courage, we have been pushing this
question mark further and further towards that distant line, beyond
the horizon, where we hope to find our answer. We have not gone
very far.
We still know very little but we have reached the point where with
a fair degree of accuracy we can guess at many things. In this
chapter I shall tell you how according to our best belief the
stage was set for the first appearance of man.
If we represent the time during which it has been possible for
animal life to exist upon our planet by a line of this length, then
the tiny line just below indicates the age during which man or a
creature more or less resembling man has lived upon this
earth.
Man was the last to come but the first to use his brain for the
purpose of conquering the forces of nature. That is the reason why
we are going to study him, rather than cats or dogs or horses or
any of the other animals, who, all in their own way, have a very
interesting historical development behind them.
In the beginning, the planet upon which we live was as far as we
now know a large ball of flaming matter, a tiny cloud of smoke in
the endless ocean of space. Gradually, in the course of millions of
years, the surface burned itself out, and was covered with a thin
layer of rocks. Upon these lifeless rocks the rain descended in
endless torrents, wearing out the hard granite and carrying the
dust to the valleys that lay hidden between the high cliffs of the
steaming earth.
Finally the hour came when the sun broke through the clouds and saw
how this little planet was covered with a few small puddles which
were to develop into the mighty oceans of the eastern and western
hemispheres.
Then one day the great wonder happened. What had been dead, gave
birth to life.
The first living cell floated upon the waters of the sea.
For millions of years it drifted aimlessly with the currents. But
during all that time it was developing certain habits that it might
survive more easily upon the inhospitable earth. Some of these
cells were happiest in the dark depths of the lakes and the pools.
They took root in the slimy sediments which had been carried down
from the tops of the hills and they became plants. Others preferred
to move about and they grew strange jointed legs, like scorpions
and began to crawl along the bottom of the sea amidst the plants
and the pale green things that looked like jelly-fishes. Still
others covered with scales depended upon a swimming motion to go
from place to place in their search for food, and gradually they
populated the ocean with myriads of fishes.
Meanwhile the plants had increased in number and they had to search
for new dwelling places. There was no more room for them at the
bottom of the sea. Reluctantly they left the water and made a new
home in the marshes and on the mudbanks that lay at the foot of the
mountains. Twice a day the tides of the ocean covered them with
their brine. For the rest of the time, the plants made the best of
their uncomfortable situation and tried to survive in the thin air
which surrounded the surface of the planet. After centuries of
training, they learned how to live as comfortably in the air as
they had done in the water. They increased in size and became
shrubs and trees and at last they learned how to grow lovely
flowers which attracted the attention of the busy big bumble-bees
and the birds who carried the seeds far and wide until the whole
earth had become covered with green pastures, or lay dark under the
shadow of the big trees. But some of the fishes too had begun to
leave the sea, and they had learned how to breathe with lungs as
well as with gills. We call such creatures amphibious, which means
that they are able to live with equal ease on the land and in the
water. The first frog who crosses your path can tell you all about
the pleasures of the double existence of the amphibian.
Once outside of the water, these animals gradually adapted
themselves more and more to life on land. Some became reptiles
creatures who crawl like lizards and they shared the silence of
the forests with the insects. That they might move faster through
the soft soil, they improved upon their legs and their size
increased until the world was populated with gigantic forms which
the handbooks of biology list under the names of Ichthyosaurus and
Megalosaurus and Brontosaurus who grew to be thirty to forty feet
long and who could have played with elephants as a full grown cat
plays with her kittens.
Some of the members of this reptilian family began to live in the
tops of the trees, which were then often more than a hundred feet
high. They no longer needed their legs for the purpose of walking,
but it was necessary for them to move quickly from branch to
branch. And so they changed a part of their skin into a sort of
parachute, which stretched between the sides of their bodies and
the small toes of their fore-feet, and gradually they covered this
skinny parachute with feathers and made their tails into a steering
gear and flew from tree to tree and developed into true
birds.
Then a strange thing happened. All the gigantic reptiles died
within a short time. We do not know the reason. Perhaps it was due
to a sudden change in climate. Perhaps they had grown so large that
they could neither swim nor walk nor crawl, and they starved to
death within sight but not within reach of the big ferns and trees.
Whatever the cause, the million year old world-empire of the big
reptiles was over.
The world now began to be occupied by very different creatures.
They were the descendants of the reptiles but they were quite
unlike these because they fed their young from the “mamm?” or the
breasts of the mother. Wherefore modern science calls these animals
“mammals.” They had shed the scales of the fish. They did not adopt
the feathers of the bird, but they covered their bodies with hair.
The mammals however developed other habits which gave their race a
great advantage over the other animals. The female of the species
carried the eggs of the young inside her body until they were
hatched and while all other living beings, up to that time, had
left their children exposed to the dangers of cold and heat, and
the attacks of wild beasts, the mammals kept their young with them
for a long time and sheltered them while they were still too weak
to fight their enemies. In this way the young mammals were given a
much better chance to survive, because they learned many things
from their mothers, as you will know if you have ever watched a cat
teaching her kittens to take care of themselves and how to wash
their faces and how to catch mice.
But of these mammals I need not tell you much for you know them
well. They surround you on all sides. They are your daily
companions in the streets and in your home, and you can see your
less familiar cousins behind the bars of the zoological
garden.
And now we come to the parting of the ways when man suddenly leaves
the endless procession of dumbly living and dying creatures and
begins to use his reason to shape the destiny of his race.
One mammal in particular seemed to surpass all others in its
ability to find food and shelter. It had learned to use its
fore-feet for the purpose of holding its prey, and by dint of
practice it had developed a hand-like claw. After innumerable
attempts it had learned how to balance the whole of the body upon
the hind legs. This is a difficult act, which every child has to
learn anew although the human race has been doing it for over a
million years.
This creature, half ape and half monkey but superior to both,
became the most successful hunter and could make a living in every
clime. For greater safety, it usually moved about in groups. It
learned how to make strange grunts to warn its young of approaching
danger and after many hundreds of thousands of years it began to
use these throaty noises for the purpose of talking.
This creature, though you may hardly believe it, was your first
“man-like” ancestor.
【中文阅读】
我们活着有一个极大的疑问。
我们是谁？
我们是从哪里来的？
我们是往哪里去？
我们已把这疑问慢慢的但是鼓着坚执的勇气推到不能再推的地方，希望在那里可以得到我们的答案。
我们所推的不远，所以知道的事情不多；但我们已经达到一个由此可以猜想出许多事情的地方了。
在这一章书内，我要告诉读者人类的舞台最初是怎样（按我们十分的相信）成立的。假使我们以上图的长线代表动物在地球上生存的年代，那么长线下的短线，就是代表我们人类（或是一种多少与人相似的动物）在地球上生存的年代。
我们所以要研究人的历史，是因为他在地球上虽然最后出现，但是最早能运用他的脑力去支配自然的势力。猫、狗、马以及其他动物，虽也有它们有趣的历史，但没有人类所有的这种特色。
我们现在所居的星球，最初原是（按我们现在所能知道的）一个大火球，在那漫无边际的太空中，仅仅是一点小小的烟雾。在无数年代的过程中，星球的表面渐渐烧尽后，结起一层稀薄的石皮。无休无尽的雨水，不断的冲击这些没有生命的石块，把它们击成细沙尘埃，带入蒸汽腾腾的地球上的高峰之间的山谷里。
到后来，太阳从云端里探首出来，望见这小小的星球上现出几个小水潭。这些小水潭以后逐渐变成东西两半球的大洋。于是有一天一个大奇迹发生了。那没有生命的得到了生命。
最初的有生命的小细胞在海面上漂浮，没有目的的随波逐浪了无数年。但在这些年代内，它却发展了一种习惯，就是容易生存在这凄凉的地球上的习惯。其中有的小细胞非常欢喜住在小河与池塘的昏暗的深底里。它们就在从山顶冲下来的黏土上生根，长成了植物。有的宁愿到处移动，就生出奇怪的有关节的腿，像蝎子似的开始在海底的植物与像水母似的淡绿东西之间爬行。此外又有些遍体有鳞的东西，靠着一种游泳的动作到处来往寻食物；它们逐渐在海洋内繁殖了无数的鱼类。
同时那些植物也增加了数目。海底已无它们容身之地，于是不得不离开海水，去到山脚的泥滩或湿地上另筑新家。海潮每天上来两次，将它们全身泡在咸水内。其余时，它们就在不舒服的情况中将就对付，并且设法在包围星球表面的稀薄空气里生活着。经过许多年代的训练，它们学会如何在空气内生活与当年在水里生活同样的舒服。它们的骨干长大了，长成大小的树木，到最后，学会如何开美丽的鲜花，引动大野蜂与飞鸟的注意，这些蜂与鸟替它们到处去传播种子，使全世界都铺满了绿沉沉的草地和阴森森的树林。
有的鱼类也渐渐离开海水，学会了如何用肺呼吸与用鳃呼吸一样方便。我们称这类动物为两栖类，意思就是它们既可以陆居，又可以水居。你在半路遇到的小青蛙就可以告诉你两栖类的二重生活的快乐。
这些动物，一旦离开水，渐渐能适应于陆居的生活。有的变成爬虫类（像壁虎之类会爬的），它们与昆虫同享树林里的安静。它们为要在松土上来去得快些，便把它们的腿改良了，体格增长了，直到这世上充满无数庞大的动物〔生物学教科书上将它们分为鱼龙（Ichthyosaurus）、斑龙（Megalosaurus）、雷龙（Brontosaurus）三种〕，这种动物长大到三四丈之长。
有的爬虫类开始迁居到树顶，那时的树往往高至十余丈。它们不用腿走，所以必须另有方法迅速地往来于树林间。于是它们把身体上一部分的皮肉变成一对翅膀与足趾间的掌皮，翅膀渐渐长满了羽毛，又把尾巴当作舵，如此便可以自由飞翔，最后就发展成真正的飞鸟。
这时又发生一件奇怪的事情。所有的庞大爬虫类统在一个短时期内死绝了。我们不知为什么。也许是为骤然改变气候的缘故。也许是为它们长得太大，以至不能游泳，不能走，也不能爬，即在它们近旁的羊齿与树，只是可望而不可即，因此而饿死的。不管是什么原因吧，总之，百万年的庞大爬虫类的世界是完了。
现在的世界渐被许多不同样的生物所占据。这些生物都是爬虫类的后裔，但与它们绝对不同，因为它们抚养孩子是用母亲的乳哺的。这种动物现在称为“哺乳动物”。它们身上脱落了鱼鳞，不采用羽毛，而披满了毛发。这些哺乳动物后来发展许多别的习惯，使它们的种族得到一个比任何动物都占便宜的极大利益。母的哺乳动物怀卵在腹内，直到孵生之日。别的动物一向都把它们的孩子丢在一旁，任凭它们挨冻受热或被野兽吞食，独有哺乳动物与它们的孩子相处很久，在孩子们尚无能力抵抗仇敌之前，永远庇护它们。这样，使小的哺乳动物有极好的生存机会，因为它们从它们的母亲们学到许多本领。你只要看一只老猫教导它的小猫如何保护身子，如何洗脸，如何捉老鼠，你就可以明白了。
关于这些哺乳动物用不着我多说，因为你知道的很清楚了。你的周围都有它们，不论你出门或在家，它们无时无刻不是你的同伴；在动物园的木栅里，还有你远房的从兄弟呢。现在我们走到歧路口了，那时人类忽然脱离过哑巴生活的动物所走的无穷尽的行程，开始运用他们的理性来定他们种族的运命。
有一种哺乳动物的寻食与找居处的能力仿佛比一切的动物特别强。它们学会用前足拿食物，靠着天天练习的功效，前足就变成手样的爪子。又经过无数次的试验，它们学会如何使全身称平在两条后腿上（这是一件艰难的工作，人类虽已有过一百万年以上的经验，然而每个小孩尚须重新学过）。
这种半猿、半猴式的，但优胜于此二者的动物，后来成为最成功的猎户，且在任何气候下都可以生活。它们为求安全起见，出游时都结队而行。它们学会做一种怪声去警告将要遇险的孩子。如此又经过几千百年之后，他们渐渐用喉音说话了。这种动物，虽然很难相信，确是你的“像人”的祖先。
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