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In about three hundred pages, H. G. Wells tells the whole story of the world, from the formation of the Earth and the first living things through the empires…
In about three hundred pages, H. G. Wells tells the whole story of the world, from the formation of the Earth and the first living things through the empires of the ancient world, the rise of Christianity and Islam, the Mongol conquests and the age of science, to the end of the First World War.
Context and significance
Published in 1922 as a shorter version of his bestselling Outline of History, it was written for ordinary readers who wanted the big picture, and it ends with the hope that humanity might unite before it destroyed itself. Some judgements now look dated, but the clarity and the sense of urgency remain impressive.
About the author
H. G. Wells (1866–1946) was the son of a failing shopkeeper and a lady's maid, and worked as a draper's apprentice before winning a scholarship to study science under T. H. Huxley, Darwin's great defender. Between 1895 and 1901 he wrote the scientific romances that founded modern science fiction, The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds and The Invisible Man among them.
He went on to write social novels, popular history such as A Short History of the World and books urging world government, met Lenin and Roosevelt, and imagined tanks, air war and the atomic bomb before they existed. Few writers have thought so hard about the future.