Historians and Chronicles

Popol Vuh The Popol Vuh is the most important source of information on the mythology of the ancient Maya. A sacred book of the Quiché Maya of Guatemala, it was written down in the mid-1500s. A Spanish priest discovered the Popol Vuh manuscript in the early 1700s. After copying the text, he translated it into Spanish. The Popol Vuh is divided into five parts. The first contains an account of the creation of the world and of the failed attempts to produce proper human beings. The second and third parts tell of the adventures of the Hero Twins, Hunahpú and Xbalanqúe, and their forebears. The last two parts deal with the issue of creating humans from corn and then tell the story of the Quiché people, from the days before their history began to accounts of tribal wars and records of rulers up until 1550. Creation of the World. At the beginning of time, the gods Hurucan and Gugumatz (also known as Quetzalcoatl) shaped the earth and its features and raised the sky above it. The gods then placed animals on the earth, hoping that they would sing the praises of the gods. When the gods discovered that the animals could not speak, they tried again to make a creature that could praise its creator. Hurucan and Gugumatz called on the ancestral beings Xpiacoc and Xmucane to help, and together they created men of mud. However, these creatures talked endlessly and dwindled away. Next the gods fashioned humans out of wood. These beings populated the earth but soon forgot...

Charles Austin Beard 1874-1948, American historian, b. near Knightstown, Ind. A year at Oxford as a graduate student gave him an interest in English local government, and after further study at Cornell and Columbia universities he wrote, for his doctoral dissertation at Columbia, The Office of Justice of the Peace in England (1904, repr. 1962). While teaching (1904-17) history and politics at Columbia, he joined James Harvey Robinson in promoting the teaching of history that would encompass all aspects of civilization, including economics, politics, the intellectual life, and culture. Together they wrote The Development of Modern Europe (1907) and compiled an accompanying book of readings. Beard was especially concerned with the relationship of economic interests and politics. His study of the conservative economic interests of the men at the Federal Constitutional Convention, An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution (1913), caused much stir; he also wrote Economic Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy (1915, repr. 1965) and The Economic Basis of Politics (1922). His interest in city government led to American City Government (1912) as well as the long-standard American Government and Politics (1910). After resigning from Columbia in World War I, he helped to found the New School for Social Research (now New School Univ. ), was director (1917-22) of the Training School for Public Service in New York City, and was an adviser on administration in Tokyo...

Xenophon , c.430 BC-c.355 BC, Greek historian, b. Athens. He was one of the well-to-do young disciples of Socrates before leaving Athens to join the Greek force (the Ten Thousand) that was in the service of Cyrus the Younger of Persia. These troops served Cyrus at the disastrous battle of Cunaxa (401 BC). When Cyrus was killed, the Ten Thousand were forced to flee or surrender to the Persians. They retreated by fighting their way through an unknown and hostile land, harried by Tissaphernes. After the Greek generals had been treacherously killed by the Persians, Xenophon was chosen as one of the leaders of the heroic retreat. He tells the story in the most celebrated of his works, the Anabasis (see tr. by W. H. D. Rouse, 1947). After his return Xenophon, a great admirer of the military, disciplined, and aristocratic life of the Spartans, was in the service of Sparta. He accompanied Agesilaus II on the campaign that ended (394 BC) in victory over the Athenians and Thebans at Coronea. The Athenians passed a sentence of banishment on him. Sparta gave him an estate at Scillus in the region of Elis, where he spent years in writing. Among his works other than the Anabasis are the Hellenica, a continuation of the history of Thucydides to 362 BC; works on Socrates ( Memorabilia, Oeconomicus, a dialogue between Socrates and Critobulus on managing a household and a farm; the Apology, on the death of Socrates; and the Symposium ) presenting a prudent and practical picture...