The Age of the Gods: A Study in the Origins of Culture in Prehistoric Europe and the Ancient East

Christopher Dawson

20 chapters · about 9 h

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The opening

CHAPTER I THE GLACIAL AGE AND THE BEGINNINGS OF HUMAN LIFE IN EUROPE

THE GLACIAL AGE AND THE BEGINNINGS OF HUMAN LIFE IN EUROPE

Tue question of the origins of cultural change is hardly less fundamental than that of the mutation of species itself, which remains the fundamental problem of biology. In fact, the development of a new way of life, and that of a new race or species, are, as we have seen, closely bound up together, and form two aspects of a single vital movement. The farther we go back in the history of humanity, the more difficult it is to conceive of any spontaneous development or modification of culture. The way of life of a primitive people is almost as unchangeable as the habits of an animal species. When Tasmania was first discovered by Europeans its natives were living a life which was in all probability essentially the same as that of their ancestors in Pleistocene times, and the coming of the higher civilisation brought with it for them, not progress, but extermination.

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The words
The author's text, copied word for word.
Left out
  • Page numbers and running heads from the printed pages, in 397 places
  • Notes and pages added by translators, editors or publishers, in 8 places
  • Endpapers, read by the OCR as letter garble (no words) (27 blocks)
  • The half-title (“E AGE OF THE GODS)”) and “All rights reserved” (3 blocks)
  • Pictures and their captions, in 4 places
  • The title page and opening pages before chapter 1
  • The edition and printer's lines (“First Edition 1928”, “Printed in Great Britain by Hazell, Watson & Viney”) (2 blocks)
  • The printed table of contents (the app makes its own), in 16 places
  • A blank page or the back of a plate or map, read by the OCR as specks (77 blocks)
  • Other material that isn't the author's, in 7 places
  • A speck or a plate's show-through, read by the OCR as letter garble (page 56: ““”)
  • A speck or a plate's show-through, read by the OCR as letter garble (page 189: “~”)
  • A speck or a plate's show-through, read by the OCR as letter garble (page 454: “°”)