Preface to the First Edition

List of Illustrations

Photographic Sources

Introduction

Chapter 1 Education: The First Schools

Chapter 2 Schooldays: The First Case of "Apple-Polishing"

Chapter 3 Father and Son: The First Case of Juvenile Delinquency

Chapter 4 International Affairs: The First "War of Nerves"

Chapter 5 Government: The First Bicameral Congress

Chapter 6 Civil War in Sumer: The First Historian

Chapter 7 Social Reform: The First Case of Tax Reduction

Chapter 8 Law Codes: The First "Moses"

Chapter 9 Justice: The First Legal Precedent

Chapter 10 Medicine: The First Pharmacopoeia

Chapter 11 Agriculture: The First "Farmer's Almanac"

Chapter 12 Horticulture: The First Experiment in Shade-Tree Gardening

Chapter 13 Philosophy: Man's First Cosmogony and Cosmology

Chapter 14 Ethics: The First Moral Ideals

Chapter 15 Suffering and Submission: The First "Job"

Chapter 16 Wisdom: The First Proverbs and Sayings

Chapter 17 "Aesopica": The First Animal Fables

Chapter 18 Logomachy: The First Literary Debates

Chapter 19 Paradise: The First Biblical Parallels

Chapter 20 A Flood: The First "Noah"

Chapter 21 Hades: The First Tale of Resurrection

Chapter 22 Slaying of the Dragon: The First ''St. George"

Chapter 23 Tales of Gilgamesh: The First Case of Literary Borrowing

Chapter 24 Epic Literature: Man's First Heroic Age

Chapter 25 To the Royal Bridegroom: The First Love Song

Chapter 26 Book Lists: The First Library Catalogue

Chapter 27 World Peace and Harmony: Man's First Golden Age

Chapter 28 Ancient Counterparts of Modern Woes: The First "Sick" Society

Chapter 29 Destruction and Deliverance: The First Liturgic Laments

Chapter 30 The Ideal King: The First Messiahs

Chapter 31 Shulgi of Ur: The First Long-Distance Champion

Chapter 32 Poetry The First Literary Imagery

Chapter 33 The Sacred Marriage Rite: The First Sex Symbolism

Chapter 34 Weeping Goddesses: The First Mater Dolorosa

Chapter 35 U-a A-u-a: The First Lullaby

Chapter 36 The Ideal Mother: Her First Literary Portrait

Chapter 37 Three Funeral Chants: The First Elegies

Chapter 38 The Pickaxe and the Plow: Labor's First Victory

Chapter 39 Home of the Fish: The First Aquarium

Corrigenda and Addenda to the Second Edition

Glossary

Appendix A. A Curse and a Map: New Gleanings from the Tablets of Sumer

Appendix B. The Origin and Development of the Cuneiform System of Writing and Other Comments on the Illustrations