![]() ![]() Wells’ Outline of History (the standard work of popularized history), van Loon was approached by his publisher to write and illustrate a similar outline of world history aimed at schoolchildren. Van Loon wrote and illustrated the first draft of the book in two months, playfully suggesting that unlike Thucydides and Ranke, who had merely written their histories, he was the greater historian since he had both written and drawn his history. (His dissertation later became his first book, the popular The Fall of the Dutch Republic.) Van Loon claimed that, in writing and illustrating popular books on history, he wanted to bring learning and education to the masses at a time when few people attended college.Īfter writing a favorable review of H. ![]() While writing his dissertation, van Loon chafed at the dry conventions of academic prose (which he found dull and lifeless) and sought instead to write as he did as a journalist: in clear, engaging prose that was intelligible to an educated reader. After graduating from Cornell University, van Loon worked as a journalist for the Associated Press in Russia and Poland, before pursuing his PhD in history at the University of Munich. ![]() Hendrik Willem van Loon was destined to be a popularizer. ![]()
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