IT BEGAN IN BABEL

by Herbert Wendt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1961

A likely companion piece in the continuum-In Search of Adam, Out of Neah is Ark, and The Fead to Man is defined as ""the story of the earth and the development of races and people"". Beginning with Herodotus' tall tales which subsequently were corroborated, just as Marco Polo's fabulous account of China was to a large extent later verified, this book ranges over the archaeology, anthropology and mythology of Asia, Africa, the near East, the Etruscans, and other civilizations. Wendt, a popularizer, who is no Sir Richard Burton or Sir James Frazier, has not done original work but has ransacked libraries and gathered the experiences and findings of specialists. His book is divided into three parts: Barbarians and Monsters, Heathens and Slaves and Tetem and Taboo- into which he weaves the sagas of the great voyages of discovery, the history of colonizations, the evolution of cultures, and the interrelationships between man's development and his environment. He ranges in time and space from Babel to Easter Island, from South America to India, from China to the pygmies of the Congo woods. Wendt writes for all who want an overall perspective and his book is an anthropological ""museum without walls"" for the general reader - rather than the informed.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1961

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1961

Categories: NONFICTION