Scheme of Contents

BOOK I
THE MAKING OF OUR WORLD

PAGE

Chapter I. The Earth in Space and Time

Chapter II. The Record of the Rocks

§ 1. The first living things

§ 2. How old is the world?

Chapter III. Natural Selection and the Changes of Species

Chapter IV. The Invasion of the Dry Land by Life

§ 1. Life and water

§ 2. The earliest animals

Chapter V. Changes in the World’s Climate

§ 1. Why life must change continually

§ 2. The sun a steadfast star

§ 3. Changes from within the earth

§ 4. Life may control change

Chapter VI. The Age of Reptiles

§ 1. The age of lowland life

§ 2. Flying dragons

§ 3. The first birds

§ 4. An age of hardship and death

§ 5. The first appearance of fur and feathers

Chapter VII. The Age of Mammals

§ 1. A new age of life

§ 2. Tradition comes into the world

§ 3. An age of brain growth

§ 4. The world grows hard again

§ 5. Chronology of the Ice Age

BOOK II
THE MAKING OF MEN

Chapter VIII. The Ancestry of Man

§ 1. Man descended from a walking ape

§ 2. First traces of man-like creatures

§ 3. The Heidelberg sub-man

§ 4. The Piltdown sub-man

§ 5. The riddle of the Piltdown remains

Chapter IX. The Neanderthal Men, an Extinct Race.
(The Early Palæolithic Age)

§ 1. The world 50,000 years ago

§ 2. The daily life of the first men

§ 3. The last Palæolithic men

Chapter X. The Later Postglacial Palæolithic Men, the First True Men.
(Later Palæolithic Age)

§ 1. The coming of men like ourselves

§ 2. Subdivision of the Later Palæolithic

§ 3. The earliest true men were clever savages

§ 4. Hunters give place to herdsmen

§ 5. No sub-men in America

Chapter XI. Neolithic Man in Europe

§ 1. The age of cultivation begins

§ 2. Where did the Neolithic culture arise?

§ 3. Everyday Neolithic life

§ 4. How did sowing begin?

§ 5. Primitive trade

§ 6. The flooding of the Mediterranean Valley

Chapter XII. Early Thought

§ 1. Primitive philosophy

§ 2. The Old Man in religion

§ 3. Fear and hope in religion

§ 4. Stars and seasons

§ 5. Story-telling and myth-making

§ 6. Complex origins of religion

Chapter XIII. The Races of Mankind

§ 1. Is mankind still differentiating?

§ 2. The main races of mankind

§ 3. Was there an Alpine race?

§ 4. The Heliolithic culture of the Brunet peoples

§ 5. How existing races may be related to each other

Chapter XIV. The Languages of Mankind

§ 1. No one primitive language

§ 2. The Aryan languages

§ 3. The Semitic languages

§ 4. The Hamitic languages

§ 5. The Ural-Altaic languages

§ 6. The Chinese languages

§ 7. Other language groups

§ 8. Submerged and lost languages

§ 9. How languages may be related

BOOK III
THE DAWN OF HISTORY

Chapter XV. The Aryan-speaking Peoples in Prehistoric Times

§ 1. The spreading of the Aryan-speakers

§ 2. Primitive Aryan life

§ 3. Early Aryan daily life

Chapter XVI. The First Civilizations

§ 1. Early cities and early nomads

§ 2A. The riddle of the Sumerians

§ 2B. The empire of Sargon the First

§ 2C. The empire of Hammurabi

§ 2D. The Assyrians and their empire

§ 2E. The Chaldean empire

§ 3. The early history of Egypt

§ 4. The early civilization of India

§ 5. The early history of China

§ 6. While the civilizations were growing

Chapter XVII. Sea Peoples and Trading Peoples

§ 1. The earliest ships and sailors

§ 2. The Ægean cities before history

§ 3. The first voyages of exploration

§ 4. Early traders

§ 5. Early travellers

Chapter XVIII. Writing

§ 1. Picture writing

§ 2. Syllable writing

§ 3. Alphabet writing

§ 4. The place of writing in human life

Chapter XIX. Gods and Stars, Priests and Kings

§ 1. Nomadic and settled religion

§ 2. The priest comes into history

§ 3. Priests and the stars

§ 4. Priests and the dawn of learning

§ 5. King against priests

§ 6. How Bel-Marduk struggled against the kings

§ 7. The god-kings of Egypt

§ 8. Shi Hwang-ti destroys the books

Chapter XX. Serfs, Slaves, Social Classes, and Free Individuals

§ 1. The common man in ancient times

§ 2. The earliest slaves

§ 3. The first “independent” persons

§ 4. Social classes three thousand years ago

§ 5. Classes hardening into castes

§ 6. Caste in India

§ 7. The system of the Mandarins

§ 8. A summary of five thousand years

BOOK IV
JUDEA, GREECE, AND INDIA

Chapter XXI. The Hebrew Scriptures and the Prophets

§ 1. The place of the Israelites in history

§ 2. Saul, David, and Solomon

§ 3. The Jews a people of mixed origin

§ 4. The importance of the Hebrew prophets

Chapter XXII. The Greeks and the Persians

§ 1. The Hellenic peoples

§ 2. Distinctive features of the Hellenic civilization

§ 3. Monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy in Greece

§ 4. The kingdom of Lydia

§ 5. The rise of the Persians in the East

§ 6. The story of Crœsus

§ 7. Darius invades Russia

§ 8. The battle of Marathon

§ 9. Thermopylæ and Salamis

§ 10. Platæa and Mycale

Chapter XXIII. Greek Thought and Literature

§ 1. The Athens of Pericles

§ 2. Socrates

§ 3. What was the quality of the common Athenians?

§ 4. Greek tragedy and comedy

§ 5. Plato and the Academy

§ 6. Aristotle and the Lyceum

§ 7. Philosophy becomes unworldly

§ 8. The quality and limitations of Greek thought

Chapter XXIV. The Career of Alexander the Great

§ 1. Philip of Macedonia

§ 2. The murder of King Philip

§ 3. Alexander’s first conquests

§ 4. The wanderings of Alexander

§ 5. Was Alexander indeed great?

§ 6. The successors of Alexander

§ 7. Pergamum a refuge of culture

§ 8. Alexander as a portent of world unity

Chapter XXV. Science and Religion at Alexandria

§ 1. The science of Alexandria

§ 2. Philosophy of Alexandria

§ 3. Alexandria as a factory of religions

Chapter XXVI. The Rise and Spread of Buddhism

§ 1. The story of Gautama

§ 2. Teaching and legend in conflict

§ 3. The gospel of Gautama Buddha

§ 4. Buddhism and Asoka

§ 5. Two great Chinese teachers

§ 6. The corruptions of Buddhism

§ 7. The present range of Buddhism

BOOK V
THE RISE AND COLLAPSE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Chapter XXVII. The Two Western Republics

§ 1. The beginnings of the Latins

§ 2. A new sort of state

§ 3. The Carthaginian republic of rich men

§ 4. The First Punic War

§ 5. Cato the Elder and the spirit of Cato

§ 6. The Second Punic War

§ 7. The Third Punic War

§ 8. How the Punic War undermined Roman liberty

§ 9. Comparison of the Roman republic with a modern state

Chapter XXVIII. From Tiberius Gracchus To the God Emperor in Rome

§ 1. The science of thwarting the common man

§ 2. Finance in the Roman state

§ 3. The last years of republican politics

§ 4. The era of the adventurer generals

§ 5. Caius Julius Cæsar and his death

§ 6. The end of the republic

§ 7. Why the Roman republic failed

Chapter XXIX. The Cæsars between the Sea and the Great
Plains of the Old World

§ 1. A short catalogue of emperors

§ 2. Roman civilization at its zenith

§ 3. Limitations of the Roman mind

§ 4. The stir of the great plains

§ 5. The Western (true Roman) Empire crumples up

§ 6. The Eastern (revived Hellenic) Empire

BOOK VI
CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM

Chapter XXX. The Beginnings, the Rise, and the Divisions of Christianity

§ 1. Judea at the Christian era

§ 2. The teachings of Jesus of Nazareth

§ 3. The universal religions

§ 4. The crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth

§ 5. Doctrines added to the teachings of Jesus

§ 6. The struggles and persecutions of Christianity

§ 7. Constantine the Great

§ 8. The establishment of official Christianity

§ 9. The map of Europe, A.D. 500

§ 10. The salvation of learning by Christianity

Chapter XXXI. Seven Centuries in Asia (CIRCA 50 B.C. TO A.D. 650)

§ 1. Justinian the Great

§ 2. The Sassanid Empire in Persia

§ 3. The decay of Syria under the Sassanids

§ 4. The first message from Islam

§ 5. Zoroaster and Mani

§ 6. Hunnish peoples in Central Asia and India

§ 7. The great age of China

§ 8. Intellectual fetters of China

§ 9. The travels of Yuan Chwang