Atlantis: The Antedeluvian World

"Atlantis: The Antediluvian World" by Ignatius Donnelly is a pseudoarchaeological book published in 1882. Donnelly argues that Plato's Atlantis was real and that all ancient civilizations descended from this lost continent. He presents thirteen hypotheses claiming Atlantis was humanity's cradle of civilization, linking ancient myths, languages, and technologies across continents. The work blends catastrophic legends with theories about racial origins, reflecting late nineteenth-century American anxieties about industrialization and decline while profoundly shaping modern Atlantis mythology. (This is an automatically generated summary.)