Friday, February 02, 2018

10,000 years of progress

This book, published in Bern, Switzerland, in 1940, aims "to celebrate the creators not the destroyers" a pointed hint to what the northern neighbour was doing at the time. Even the 10,000 years of the title can be read as a response to the Nazi 1000 year empire.

Designed as a popularisation for all ages, the book has a woodcut illustration on each of its 250 pages, with a very short and accessible text explaining the way in which humanity has progressed through the invention or methodology shown.

10000 Jahre Schaffen und Forschen: Die Wege des Fortschritts from Einst zum Jetzt.
Bruno Kaiser, with 266 illustrations by Paul Boesch, Pestalozzi-Verlag Kaiser & Co AG, Bern, 1940
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PS: While I generally think that Oxfam's Oxford shops are setting prices for books too high, the foreign language books are more reasonably priced. I guess they factor in the assumption that very few people read those languages ...



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1 comment:

  1. Ingo Bading8:44 AM

    Only three years before in Germany there was published a book by the german archaeologist Jörg Lechler (1894-1969):

    - Lechler, Jörg: 5000 Jahre Deutschland. Eine Führung in 700 Bildern durch die deutsche Vorzeit und germanische Kultur. Verlag C. Kabitzsch 1937 (217 S.)

    Since 1936 he lived in Detroit, USA where he died. He published works about the history of the Swastika or about the vikings in America.

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