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The Outline of History, Vol. 1
Several revised versions were produced during Wells' lifetime. He kept notes on factual corrections he received from educators around the world. The last revision in his lifetime was published in 1939. In 1949, an expanded version was produced by author & scholar Raymond Postgate, whose additional material initially expanded the timeline thru WWII, with subsequent additions thru 1969. Postgate respected that readers wished "to hear the views of Wells, not Postgate" & endeavored to preserve the original authorial voice in his revisions. In the later editions, G.P. Wells, the author's son, updated the early chapters about prehistory to reflect current theories; previous editions, for instance, reflected the credence given to the Piltdown Man hoax. The final edition appeared in 1971, but earlier editions are still in print.
713 pages, Library Binding
First published January 1, 1919
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About the author
H.G. Wells
5,366 books11.1k followersHerbert George Wells was born to a working class family in Kent, England. Young Wells received a spotty education, interrupted by several illnesses and family difficulties, and became a draper's apprentice as a teenager. The headmaster of Midhurst Grammar School, where he had spent a year, arranged for him to return as an "usher," or student teacher. Wells earned a government scholarship in 1884, to study biology under Thomas Henry Huxley at the Normal School of Science. Wells earned his bachelor of science and doctor of science degrees at the University of London. After marrying his cousin, Isabel, Wells began to supplement his teaching salary with short stories and freelance articles, then books, including The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898).
Wells created a mild scandal when he divorced his cousin to marry one of his best students, Amy Catherine Robbins. Although his second marriage was lasting and produced two sons, Wells was an unabashed advocate of free (as opposed to "indiscriminate") love. He continued to openly have extra-marital liaisons, most famously with Margaret Sanger, and a ten-year relationship with the author Rebecca West, who had one of his two out-of-wedlock children. A one-time member of the Fabian Society, Wells sought active change. His 100 books included many novels, as well as nonfiction, such as A Modern Utopia (1905), The Outline of History (1920), A Short History of the World (1922), The Shape of Things to Come (1933), and The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind (1932). One of his booklets was Crux Ansata, An Indictment of the Roman Catholic Church. Although Wells toyed briefly with the idea of a "divine will" in his book, God the Invisible King (1917), it was a temporary aberration. Wells used his international fame to promote his favorite causes, including the prevention of war, and was received by government officials around the world. He is best-remembered as an early writer of science fiction and futurism.
He was also an outspoken socialist. Wells and Jules Verne are each sometimes referred to as "The Fathers of Science Fiction". D. 1946.
More: http://philosopedia.org/index.php/H._...
http://www.online-literature.com/well...
http://www.hgwellsusa.50megs.com/
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._Wells
Wells created a mild scandal when he divorced his cousin to marry one of his best students, Amy Catherine Robbins. Although his second marriage was lasting and produced two sons, Wells was an unabashed advocate of free (as opposed to "indiscriminate") love. He continued to openly have extra-marital liaisons, most famously with Margaret Sanger, and a ten-year relationship with the author Rebecca West, who had one of his two out-of-wedlock children. A one-time member of the Fabian Society, Wells sought active change. His 100 books included many novels, as well as nonfiction, such as A Modern Utopia (1905), The Outline of History (1920), A Short History of the World (1922), The Shape of Things to Come (1933), and The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind (1932). One of his booklets was Crux Ansata, An Indictment of the Roman Catholic Church. Although Wells toyed briefly with the idea of a "divine will" in his book, God the Invisible King (1917), it was a temporary aberration. Wells used his international fame to promote his favorite causes, including the prevention of war, and was received by government officials around the world. He is best-remembered as an early writer of science fiction and futurism.
He was also an outspoken socialist. Wells and Jules Verne are each sometimes referred to as "The Fathers of Science Fiction". D. 1946.
More: http://philosopedia.org/index.php/H._...
http://www.online-literature.com/well...
http://www.hgwellsusa.50megs.com/
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._Wells
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 79 reviews
April 4, 2011
I have the 1921 edition - the original which I picked up at a local second hand shop a few years ago for just $1.00. I had no idea that H.G. Wells had written a history text. Being a history buff and having earned my degree in history I was suprised. I never heard this text mentioned once in four and a half years of higher education - why?
Well for one Mr. Wells does not fit the academic mold nor does his book follow what is still established doctrine for history texts. He has opinions about everything, he won't hesitate to tell the reader what he thinks was wrong with ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, Alexander ect.
This isn't a man suffering from hero worship. Being a fan of all things Roman I didn't necessary agree with all his evaluations of the Empire and it's civilization, but I have to respect his courage in stating it. This is a book which challenges the reader to think. While Wells is guilty of ommission and some commission which historian isn't? No this is a daring work and even though it's ninety years old I found it very relevant and lacking in pretension. I'm proud to have this book sitting on my shelves. Excellent.
Well for one Mr. Wells does not fit the academic mold nor does his book follow what is still established doctrine for history texts. He has opinions about everything, he won't hesitate to tell the reader what he thinks was wrong with ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, Alexander ect.
This isn't a man suffering from hero worship. Being a fan of all things Roman I didn't necessary agree with all his evaluations of the Empire and it's civilization, but I have to respect his courage in stating it. This is a book which challenges the reader to think. While Wells is guilty of ommission and some commission which historian isn't? No this is a daring work and even though it's ninety years old I found it very relevant and lacking in pretension. I'm proud to have this book sitting on my shelves. Excellent.
November 3, 2009
I hunted this book down after realising it was a book I needed in my life, my knowledge of history was patchy at best, Eurocentric and in a bit of a jumble.
David Attenborough was in a similar pickle when he was appointed head of the new BBC2, and this was the book that set him straight and proved a bit of an inspiration. I am glad to say it's done the same thing for me.
This book is not without flaws, it is about 80 years old now, and the early chapters on man's evolution are probably laughable to any expert in the field. As well as a few out of date ideas that let down Well's huge intellect.
That said I cannot praise what this book does enough. Wells has condensed an incredible amount of information without losing any clarity or vitality. It is immensely readable and manages to bring historical figures to life in a paragraph or even a line! It is a book full of hopes and dreams for the future, noble and relevant ones, which continually give the histories meaning.
I really think he had good intentions about presenting us with a global history, he falls a little short, probably due to a glut of information on one hand and a scarcity on the other. Also his sense of urgency about framing the world wars seems to skew the later half of the book to Europe.
I would heartily recommend this to anyone who is not sure how Rome ended and Italy began, to anyone who is unfamiliar with Charlemagne and Asoka, and to anyone who is not sure who got liberty first; America or France.
May 24, 2011
This book is heroic. Like all heroes, it is deeply flawed, but it is a flaw that provides the book with a unity of purpose that makes it a great book: HG Wells, a socialist and a humanist in the grandest scale, could not escape the prejudice of his era in the belief in an Aryan race that had contributed almost all that is progressive and good in civilisation.
The book is nevertheless an astonishing achievement, and a jolly good read. It sweeps confidently through the ages with brisk, vigorous narrative and a story-teller's mix of theory and story. HG Wells' wide-ranging humanism taps into what were then the latest discoveries in anthropology, psychology, economics and cultural studies. The narrative is interesting not because it is timelessly accurate, but because it is a magnificent synthesis of what was state-of-art across many disciplines touching upon historical understanding circa 1920.
Such an achievement would only be possible to someone like HG Wells, who was driven by a philosophical conviction in the possibility of amelioration of the human condition. This feature saved him from falling into a romanticism about specific epochs to which many a historian still today is prone.
This book is, in short, good, informative literature: It delivers more than its label promises in ways unexpected to its author.
The book is nevertheless an astonishing achievement, and a jolly good read. It sweeps confidently through the ages with brisk, vigorous narrative and a story-teller's mix of theory and story. HG Wells' wide-ranging humanism taps into what were then the latest discoveries in anthropology, psychology, economics and cultural studies. The narrative is interesting not because it is timelessly accurate, but because it is a magnificent synthesis of what was state-of-art across many disciplines touching upon historical understanding circa 1920.
Such an achievement would only be possible to someone like HG Wells, who was driven by a philosophical conviction in the possibility of amelioration of the human condition. This feature saved him from falling into a romanticism about specific epochs to which many a historian still today is prone.
This book is, in short, good, informative literature: It delivers more than its label promises in ways unexpected to its author.
July 27, 2009
Fascinating from a cultural-historical perspective (trying to imagine Wells' frames of reference and open-mindedness in the years 1918-1929)
Not a bad choice for the average US citizen to read just for filling in our cultural gaps, still true today as in the 30s.
Interesting, to me, that Wells at the start of the 20th century understood the need to de-westernize history...he doesn't know all that much about Asia but he knows those cultures are valuable and important, and part of collective history.
Not a bad choice for the average US citizen to read just for filling in our cultural gaps, still true today as in the 30s.
Interesting, to me, that Wells at the start of the 20th century understood the need to de-westernize history...he doesn't know all that much about Asia but he knows those cultures are valuable and important, and part of collective history.
December 6, 2013
If history of humanity feels a lot like the following video to you, then you need to read this book, or at least my review of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3Jhik... (PG-13 for violence and some language, but it is VERY relevant!).
The premise of this monumental work of H.G. Wells’ is staggering: sketch all of history as succinctly as possible while critiquing major figures and events, noting their contributions to the evolving story and progress of humankind, and imagining for the reader the trajectory along which everything is barreling. Wells pulled it off quite nicely, although it was inevitable that sections of the work would became bogged down by a litany of names, dates, and places; but I’m assuming there were critics to please, and people who would feel he was doing history buffs a disservice by leaving out names and events that meant a lot to a particular demographic. His chronological table alone spans 15 pages. You can’t please them all, but Wells did as well as anyone I’ve read.
I have been asked a couple of times why I am reading an out-of-date historical work. The last revision to the Outline in Wells’ lifetime was published in 1937. Later, Raymond Postgate updated it, trying to preserve the ‘voice’ of Wells (which I think he did a fine job of); and Wells’ son, G.P. Wells, updated the final edition in 1971. It appears that since the last update in 1971, more has been added to our understanding of history than overturned. Mostly, Wells was timeless in the unique way he chose to outline and summarize happenings and, more importantly, ideas, for he believed that “all human history is fundamentally a history of ideas.” His remarkable storytelling stands out far beyond other histories that are a mere recitation of facts.
The work as a whole may better represent historiography or philosophy of history instead of history per se, so, as much as I hate to say it, it is most likely already going the way of the dinosaur as far as a plain chronicle of episodes is concerned. This is an assumption, but there are probably other works out there that can do that job better. I wish people could make the connection between what they love in H.G. Wells’ other writings, and infer that the same creative mind is at work in this Outline to help readers understand the deep meaning of humanity’s experiences, but that isn’t likely. So, my peeps, allow me to regurgitate for you.
Wells fully commits to the story of early humanity in a way that few seldom know to do. He seems to really understand all that was and is hanging on humanity’s evolution, and all the ramifications of the nuanced changes and milestones. His grasp of the origins of religion is especially illuminating. He reduces much early religion to a fear of the Old Man in a tribal culture who was the dominant male that ensured the survival of the tribe, monopolized the females, and demanded the fear, servility and absolute reverence of the other males. The taboo associated with tampering with any of the belongings of the Old Man carved deep grooves in the tribe’s psyche—“the fear of the Old Man was the beginning of social wisdom”—and probably influenced posterity’s fear of the Old Man coming back, since a fetish-awed mentality shrouded the dead in supernatural possibilities. Slowly but surely, “The fear of the Father passed by imperceptible degrees into the fear of the Tribal God.” There are traces here of Herbert Spencer’s ideas, one of the fathers of evolution who coined the phrase “survival of the fittest”, which developed the idea that religion’s root lies in the chief of a tribe whose mastery over his people and environment began to be understood by his contemporaries and successive generations as a difference that is “not of degree only, but of kind” (from Universal Progress). The chief was a superman to his ordinary brethren, and the dead chief became the archetype of the aboriginal deity.
Wells stretches this theory further to account for the growing fear and respect for priest-craft, which cultivated a hegemony of power by forging “secrets in order to have secrets to tell.” This groping veneration culminated in what we now consider to be the most barbaric of rituals and self-sacrifice. The blood-letting which characterized many of the primitive cultures was a matter of course. “To lift curses, to remove evils, to confirm and establish, one must needs do potent things. And was there anything more potent in existence than killing, the shedding of life-blood?” What began as fetishism in the late Paleolithic period morphed over the epochs into full-blown animism and later, as language developed in the Neolithic stage, into crudely systematized and heavily ritualized religious belief.
“Out of all these factors, out of the Old Man tradition, out of the emotions that surround Women for men and Men for women, out of the desire to escape infection and uncleanness, out of the desire for power and success through magic, out of the sacrificial tradition of seedtime, and out of a number of like beliefs and mental experiments and misconceptions, a complex something was growing up in the lives of men which was beginning to bind them together mentally and emotionally in a common life and action. This something we may call religion. It was not a simple or logical something, it was a tangle of ideas about commanding beings and spirits, about gods, about all sorts of ‘musts’ and ‘must-nots’. Like all other human matters, religion has grown. It must be clear from what has gone before that primitive man—much less his ancestral apes and his ancestral Mesozoic mammals—could have had no idea of God or religion; only very slowly did his brain and his powers of comprehension become capable of such general conceptions. Religion is something that has grown up with and through human association, and God has been and is still being discovered by man…Hitherto a social consciousness had been asleep and not even dreaming in human history. Before it awakened, it produced nightmares.”
Pre-written and written history is so vast. It blows my mind. Some experts say that we can only picture a small number of separate, concrete units in our mind at one time—I think that number is ten—and the rest is abstraction and generalization. There are so many factors to consider in historical surveys. What factors are we classifying in history as significant, and what myriad elements have those factors combined with in their time, and over the eons, that adulterate the isolated fact, making it a mélange of influences, or an altogether different thing from the original fact? Billions of data are interacting with billions of data, and those billions upon billions of results interacting with old and new data to form objects, acts, events, people, ideas, cultures, civilizations and worlds. Where does one datum end and another begin? Where do we draw the lines for meaningful memories and studies, and if we could draw the lines of discrete facts and interactions, how do we hold it all in our little mind? History is infinitely complex, as is each of our experience in history, and the best we can do is redraw our internal maps and strategies using the most significant and reliable information as we can receive and understand. This is one of the reasons Wells titled his book as an Outline, a bird’s-eye-view, which, if we’re being honest, is the best any of us can do. Even as an outline the book in places became bogged down in names, dates, and deeds, much of which couldn’t be well-described for lack of space. The amount of material one has to summarily skip over is in itself mind-numbing. I’m sure the decision about what to include may not have been nearly has difficult to determine as what to exclude.
In the end, Wells has hope for humanity, but he’s not a blind optimist…not after the World Wars. He has been criticized over the years for his materialistic notions, socialist leanings, and utopian ideals, some of which he gave verbal apologies for, but his Outline Of History is a very balanced and cautiously optimistic approach to hope and progress. He does seem to understand the tenuous and fragile thing peace and intelligence is, and I think he was doing his utmost to help the world realize its fullest human potential. “Modern civilization…is an embryo, or it is a thing doomed to die…our present civilization may be no more than one of those crops farmers sow to improve their land by the fixation of nitrogen from the air; it may have grown only that, accumulating certain traditions, it may be ploughed into the soil again for better things to follow.”
So, in the big picture, have we as humans come far? I think Wells’ answer is yes, but not without loss. His wrap-up to his chapter ending WWI is probably how he ultimately tallies the results of wins/losses throughout history, and how far he could see from where he last stood. “Nearly everyone had lost too much and suffered too much to rejoice with any fervor.”
This review has been abridged for Goodreads.com. For the full review, visit: http://bookburningservice.blogspot.co...
The premise of this monumental work of H.G. Wells’ is staggering: sketch all of history as succinctly as possible while critiquing major figures and events, noting their contributions to the evolving story and progress of humankind, and imagining for the reader the trajectory along which everything is barreling. Wells pulled it off quite nicely, although it was inevitable that sections of the work would became bogged down by a litany of names, dates, and places; but I’m assuming there were critics to please, and people who would feel he was doing history buffs a disservice by leaving out names and events that meant a lot to a particular demographic. His chronological table alone spans 15 pages. You can’t please them all, but Wells did as well as anyone I’ve read.
I have been asked a couple of times why I am reading an out-of-date historical work. The last revision to the Outline in Wells’ lifetime was published in 1937. Later, Raymond Postgate updated it, trying to preserve the ‘voice’ of Wells (which I think he did a fine job of); and Wells’ son, G.P. Wells, updated the final edition in 1971. It appears that since the last update in 1971, more has been added to our understanding of history than overturned. Mostly, Wells was timeless in the unique way he chose to outline and summarize happenings and, more importantly, ideas, for he believed that “all human history is fundamentally a history of ideas.” His remarkable storytelling stands out far beyond other histories that are a mere recitation of facts.
The work as a whole may better represent historiography or philosophy of history instead of history per se, so, as much as I hate to say it, it is most likely already going the way of the dinosaur as far as a plain chronicle of episodes is concerned. This is an assumption, but there are probably other works out there that can do that job better. I wish people could make the connection between what they love in H.G. Wells’ other writings, and infer that the same creative mind is at work in this Outline to help readers understand the deep meaning of humanity’s experiences, but that isn’t likely. So, my peeps, allow me to regurgitate for you.
Wells fully commits to the story of early humanity in a way that few seldom know to do. He seems to really understand all that was and is hanging on humanity’s evolution, and all the ramifications of the nuanced changes and milestones. His grasp of the origins of religion is especially illuminating. He reduces much early religion to a fear of the Old Man in a tribal culture who was the dominant male that ensured the survival of the tribe, monopolized the females, and demanded the fear, servility and absolute reverence of the other males. The taboo associated with tampering with any of the belongings of the Old Man carved deep grooves in the tribe’s psyche—“the fear of the Old Man was the beginning of social wisdom”—and probably influenced posterity’s fear of the Old Man coming back, since a fetish-awed mentality shrouded the dead in supernatural possibilities. Slowly but surely, “The fear of the Father passed by imperceptible degrees into the fear of the Tribal God.” There are traces here of Herbert Spencer’s ideas, one of the fathers of evolution who coined the phrase “survival of the fittest”, which developed the idea that religion’s root lies in the chief of a tribe whose mastery over his people and environment began to be understood by his contemporaries and successive generations as a difference that is “not of degree only, but of kind” (from Universal Progress). The chief was a superman to his ordinary brethren, and the dead chief became the archetype of the aboriginal deity.
Wells stretches this theory further to account for the growing fear and respect for priest-craft, which cultivated a hegemony of power by forging “secrets in order to have secrets to tell.” This groping veneration culminated in what we now consider to be the most barbaric of rituals and self-sacrifice. The blood-letting which characterized many of the primitive cultures was a matter of course. “To lift curses, to remove evils, to confirm and establish, one must needs do potent things. And was there anything more potent in existence than killing, the shedding of life-blood?” What began as fetishism in the late Paleolithic period morphed over the epochs into full-blown animism and later, as language developed in the Neolithic stage, into crudely systematized and heavily ritualized religious belief.
“Out of all these factors, out of the Old Man tradition, out of the emotions that surround Women for men and Men for women, out of the desire to escape infection and uncleanness, out of the desire for power and success through magic, out of the sacrificial tradition of seedtime, and out of a number of like beliefs and mental experiments and misconceptions, a complex something was growing up in the lives of men which was beginning to bind them together mentally and emotionally in a common life and action. This something we may call religion. It was not a simple or logical something, it was a tangle of ideas about commanding beings and spirits, about gods, about all sorts of ‘musts’ and ‘must-nots’. Like all other human matters, religion has grown. It must be clear from what has gone before that primitive man—much less his ancestral apes and his ancestral Mesozoic mammals—could have had no idea of God or religion; only very slowly did his brain and his powers of comprehension become capable of such general conceptions. Religion is something that has grown up with and through human association, and God has been and is still being discovered by man…Hitherto a social consciousness had been asleep and not even dreaming in human history. Before it awakened, it produced nightmares.”
Pre-written and written history is so vast. It blows my mind. Some experts say that we can only picture a small number of separate, concrete units in our mind at one time—I think that number is ten—and the rest is abstraction and generalization. There are so many factors to consider in historical surveys. What factors are we classifying in history as significant, and what myriad elements have those factors combined with in their time, and over the eons, that adulterate the isolated fact, making it a mélange of influences, or an altogether different thing from the original fact? Billions of data are interacting with billions of data, and those billions upon billions of results interacting with old and new data to form objects, acts, events, people, ideas, cultures, civilizations and worlds. Where does one datum end and another begin? Where do we draw the lines for meaningful memories and studies, and if we could draw the lines of discrete facts and interactions, how do we hold it all in our little mind? History is infinitely complex, as is each of our experience in history, and the best we can do is redraw our internal maps and strategies using the most significant and reliable information as we can receive and understand. This is one of the reasons Wells titled his book as an Outline, a bird’s-eye-view, which, if we’re being honest, is the best any of us can do. Even as an outline the book in places became bogged down in names, dates, and deeds, much of which couldn’t be well-described for lack of space. The amount of material one has to summarily skip over is in itself mind-numbing. I’m sure the decision about what to include may not have been nearly has difficult to determine as what to exclude.
In the end, Wells has hope for humanity, but he’s not a blind optimist…not after the World Wars. He has been criticized over the years for his materialistic notions, socialist leanings, and utopian ideals, some of which he gave verbal apologies for, but his Outline Of History is a very balanced and cautiously optimistic approach to hope and progress. He does seem to understand the tenuous and fragile thing peace and intelligence is, and I think he was doing his utmost to help the world realize its fullest human potential. “Modern civilization…is an embryo, or it is a thing doomed to die…our present civilization may be no more than one of those crops farmers sow to improve their land by the fixation of nitrogen from the air; it may have grown only that, accumulating certain traditions, it may be ploughed into the soil again for better things to follow.”
So, in the big picture, have we as humans come far? I think Wells’ answer is yes, but not without loss. His wrap-up to his chapter ending WWI is probably how he ultimately tallies the results of wins/losses throughout history, and how far he could see from where he last stood. “Nearly everyone had lost too much and suffered too much to rejoice with any fervor.”
This review has been abridged for Goodreads.com. For the full review, visit: http://bookburningservice.blogspot.co...
June 21, 2009
I read it about 3 years after reading War of the Worlds. My Dad was an avid reader, & he had accumulated some very interesting books. I had no idea really there was a 2nd volume, I just uncovered this book will looking for another. I thank Goodreads for this rare gem, as I probably wouldn't have found it for a long time. I am unearthing closets full of books to enter in my Goodreads bookshelves. My brother took most of the books my father owned, I glad he missed this one. Maybe he has volume 2!
December 24, 2010
Although dated by the ongoing march of knowledge, it is still enjoyable to read Wells' writing and his different perspectives on historical events and figures. His passages on Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad are insightful and against the grain. The writing tends to weaken considerably near the end of WWI, and when another writer picked up the tale in WWII, all the British colonial biases began to seep in to the story. But his emphasis on the human race evolving into a community of will is dead on and we still face challenges in reaching that destination.
March 24, 2023
This is a good one. Wells starts his history of the world in this volume with the formation of the Earth and ends with the reign of Constantine. He covers this all in about six hundred pages and it felt like much less. Wells isn't a trained historian and thank goodness he's not. The historical details are given but not dwelled upon. He focuses his efforts here on storytelling and drawing the big picture of humankind across the ages. He's not shy in offering his opinion about important figures and events. They just don't write books like this anymore.
Obviously a history originally written almost a hundred years ago contains many flaws, including some that are nearly fatal, but it's easy to mentally substitute the errors while Wells keep the narrative moving at a pleasant clip. The finer details are not the point in a sweeping narrative like this. Pure pleasure read, would recommend.
Obviously a history originally written almost a hundred years ago contains many flaws, including some that are nearly fatal, but it's easy to mentally substitute the errors while Wells keep the narrative moving at a pleasant clip. The finer details are not the point in a sweeping narrative like this. Pure pleasure read, would recommend.
August 2, 2022
I would give this book six stars if I could.
A marvelous expansion of one's intellectual horizons, this book deals with history from the beginning of the earth up to the end of the (Western) Roman Empire. The author is fair and even-handed in his treatment of the subject matter, and while he does not engage in the sort of irony that other historians do -- Edward Gibbon, quoted in this book, comes to mind -- there are still sections of this book that are both humorous and deeply sad.
Recommended reading for everyone.
A marvelous expansion of one's intellectual horizons, this book deals with history from the beginning of the earth up to the end of the (Western) Roman Empire. The author is fair and even-handed in his treatment of the subject matter, and while he does not engage in the sort of irony that other historians do -- Edward Gibbon, quoted in this book, comes to mind -- there are still sections of this book that are both humorous and deeply sad.
Recommended reading for everyone.
Read
May 18, 2020Historically rich and affluent, from the first day how human found the fire to how we humans destroyed all of the globe over avarice, greed and covetousness. I have read Islamic, European history, Orientalist history and Mongolian history, towards then to Napoleon Wars, First and second world wars, all of these eminent events are covered by the H.G Well. I found a bit of partiality in his history at some topics but still a good one.
In last, Worth reading.
In last, Worth reading.
October 23, 2024
As a kid, I remember checking out this book, although possibly a different edition, and losing interest soon after starting Well’s complicated, detailed book. It’s still a slow read with so many names, geography, wars, and issues. It’s worth the time to read this book to learn more about the history of our world. Wells brings a different perspective than other world history books. Two elements that are disturbing about this book is the absence of footnotes or any sourcing and the concentration on European history with only a brief touch on Asians rich contributions and barely anything about Africa south of Egypt. The reader misses a lot about the development of Asia, especially since the writer teases us about the five talented emperors who controlled the region from about 2,700 to 2,400 B.C. who brought forward the people.
What is refreshing about this compact 500-page book is that Wells raises how much more has been learned, how past scientists were wrong in their calculations, and that there are few absolutes. It gives me hope that we can continue to learn and what we are taking as fact may not be right, especially when we are looking at the comprehensive history of the world. Yet, there are some absolutes like no living thing lasts forever, a fact that changes everything.
Wells starts, well, at the beginning. I always found it more boring to talk about the world before humans existed and even before humans started to develop the life-changing inventions like fire and language. He speaks about how the oceans had far less salt, that there were not flowering plants but trees were plentiful and tall. Wells talks in details about reptiles and the start of mammals in the Mesozoic Period. He speaks about how the mammal is a “family animal” that has continued until today. His discussion of discoveries of the Neanderthal in Germany did not hold up with time since so much more has been discovered since the publishing of this book. It reminds us that even today’s books will most likely be proven wrong or at least incomplete since science and discoveries continue.
The development of villages about 5,000 years ago, during the Neolithic period, was a game-changer. Societies were being established across Europe and Asia and even into Africa. Paleolithic man was much more of a wanderer, going from place to place. Another book I read spoke about when humans started to grow products for their consumption and, later, bartering rather than eat what they could capture, they also started to fight rather than simply leave and go somewhere else. Hunting people didn’t “own” any property but had large ranges. But Wells was confusing when he wrote about materials found in the 1950’s that showed the village of Jericho and that some villages dated back to 6,000 B.C. Words like “perhaps,” “about” and “very little known” sprinkle the book bringing doubt to what we really know and when the first of this or that existed. The author seemed to settle on 6-7,000 years ago when villages were first being established.
The earliest forms of government were priestly governments. He said that this approach lacked an efficient military leadership and envy between different religious factions. Because the army was not a professional, paid unit, as later defined, people could be easily bribed and, thus, controlled. The temple system had real issues but was the fundamental of earliest societies from the rest was built including the court system, the development of taxes, merchants (starting with ship builders), small retailers, and a growing number of independent property owners.
The discussion of religious rites and thoughts of death was fascinating. Neanderthals buried their dead with weapons and food, possibly because they thought it could be used in an afterlife.
Wells does an exceptional job in sharing how language and then writing became a turning point in the development of humans. Keeping track of history and business added to the development of our understanding of their lives and improved their lives considerably. Prior to language, humans thought of very little and were very literate. Their thought process didn’t allow them to invent so many items that brought upon civilization. Earlier languages consisted of a few hundred words with peasants getting along with only using less than a thousand words. Language developed slowly with many questions on how it was shared over larger geographical areas. Wells states that grammatical forms and the use of abstract ideas might have come as late as 400 to 500 generations ago. He states that the Aryan family of languages covered nearly all of Europe all the way to Russia, Armenia, Persia, and India. The Semitic set of languages were separate from the Aryan and were connected to Hebrew and Arabic. The Chinese (or Monosyllabic group) spread across China, Burma, and Tibet. He then tossed in there may have been even more primitive languages in Africa.
Writing really changed the development of humans, starting around 10,000 B.C. and 500 B.C. Men started to write stories about themselves, and their writing became more complex. With language and writing, music also developed. Ancient music had rhythm but no melody. Think of lots of noise – stomping, hand-clapping and primitive drumming. The Christian era changed that, and music became more sophisticated.
Wells speaks a lot about empires in his book: Sumerians, Sargon the First, Hammurabi, Egypt, and those in India and China. Alexander the Great, Psammetichus, Necho II, and Shi-Hwang-ti. There are lots of names and places tossed in as if it was a salad. It was interesting when Wells spoke about how Egypt developed around 5,000 B.C. in part due to the geographical safety the desert and sea provide the people.
Much of the book focuses on the Greek Empire. By 1,500 B.C., the Hellenes came to the land of Greece in various settlements of tribes. Their families were large, but their cities rarely exceeded 50,000 residents. Their leaders were called, interesting enough, Tyrants. They were the boss. By the sixth century B.C., government moved to what was called a democracy. Of course, it was not what we would consider a democracy but did give a voice to some, mostly with land. It was more like an oligarchy with some voice of the poor and put more of the tax burden on the rich. There were parties and leaders of parties but no government officials; decisions were more consensuses. With this system of limited leadership, vetoing an approach or program often held back progress. Even with this division in their system, there was unity within the Greeks due to a common language and financial system. They did not suffer an attack on their lands until 490 B.C. by the Persians. The author speaks about how the – later – Peloponnesian War that dragged on for 30 years wasted all the money and power of Greece. Unfortunately, the author’s description of the rise of Greece in literature, philosophy, and art was confusing and not focused. He reports that Plato was born in 427 B.C. but had few other clear statements about his life and work. In all the editions, one would have thought an editor would have made this rich time of history more pronounce.
Wells did a much better job describing life in India. Like Egypt, geography largely protected India with mountains, desert areas, and the ocean providing safety from war. Wells writes that for centuries, the history of India had been “happier, less fierce, and more dreamlike than any other history.” Love stories consume the history of the noblemen and the rajahs. Buddhistic doctrine of Karma brought happiness to future lives depending on how one lived the current one. He later spoke about India as being a “patchwork-quilt of states. Sometimes, such as during the Gupta Empire of the four through sixth centuries, bringing together a larger area for great literary activity. The organization of government had little impact on the lives of their people. Wells used the discussion of Buddhism to skip over to China and speak about how Buddhism and Taoism lived side by side, leading to similar religions today.
The book devotes an intense chapter on the rise and collapse of the Roman Empire, rising interesting issues of holding a country together that we see evident in our own country today. Founded in 753 B.C., at a time when much of the country was marsh land and forests. War was the focus of the day with Rome being in an area that was hard to hold, lacking the geography that would aid the conquerors. By 265 B.C., according to the census, there were 300,000 citizens under Rome’s dominion. Fighting broke out constantly between Rome and Carthage until Rome forces won a seven-year battle in about 240 B.C. Wells spoke about how peace of the two sides still left Carthage with a mess – looting on behalf of the returning soldiers who were not paid and disorder throughout the land. Wells make the point that cooler heads could have resulted in more progress and a better life for all. When Rome won their war with Carthage, they were punishing in severe ways, taking Spain, stealing most of their war ships, and imposing huge financial penalties. Taxes were shifted from citizens of Rome to the foreigner.
Looking for lessons from this book, chapter 26 provides many. The author speaks about how democracy was held back because of the lack of education of the population and the absence of a press that all could pull undisputed facts. He speaks to gerrymandering by Rome to control the vote and deny true representation. And he spoke to the growing super wealthy causing general dissatisfaction. It led to Julius Ceasar being named dictator for ten years in 46 B.C. then, the following year, dictator for life. Only the assassination of Ceasar by his former supporters changed the direction of the country. The attempt to have a republic collapsed largely because the good faith needed to hold together different views fell through. Their bond based on moral basis rather than a religious bond could not hold up into the first century B.C. People looked inward to what was personally desired rather than giving up some for the betterment of a system. The system turned to a monarchy.
Wells highlights the various groups of Roman emperors:
Tiberius (A.D. 14 to 37), a capable ruler but became deeply unpopular in Rome.
Caligula (A.D. 37 to 41), insane and eccentric. Murdered by his servants.
Claudius (A.D. 41 to 54), uncle of Caligula. Hardworking and capable. He expanded the empire to the west.
Nero (A.D. 54 to 68). Cruel, killing off family members. He became unpopular in Roam. Committed suicide.
Wells speaks to the years of order between 27 B.C. and A.D. 180 as “wasted opportunities” because it was years of spending rather than creating, where the rich grew richer and poor poorer. Limited reforms did take place on the use of slaves, like forbidding them to be required to participate in gladiator shows but the focus of society was to turn inward and not expand out to the growing cultures of India, China, or Persia. Wells says that the world “was not progressing during these two centuries of Roman prosperity” despite limited war or famine. Life was hardly worth living for the poor and enslaved. The author spells out that giving government to the rich and not spreading knowledge led to its downfall.
The book ends addressing the plight of the Jews, how they were rejected from their own land and about how Jesus preached from a boat upon the Lake of Galilee. He then moves to Asia where he does a vastly inadequate job in talking about this vast area of the world, drawing very little information and hurrying along a rich, interesting history.
Among so many facts, Wells raised in the book include:
The telescope, Wells contends powerfully, was a “new phase in human thought, a new vision of life.” He writes that this instrument “released a human imagination,” like no other.
It took man until the 18th century to study fossils systematically.
The diameter of our world is slightly under 8,000 miles.
Women probably started the industry of agriculture, using seeds and literally planting a home. They were responsible for food and collection of plants and probably decided to grow their own.
Books of the Old Testament were in existence, much as they are today, 100 years before the birth of Christ.
Ireland retained primitive life the longest, cut off from all the Keltic-speaking communities.
Almost all information about the personality of Jesus is from the four Gospels written a few decades after his death – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Historians put most emphasis on the Gospel of St. Mark. These were the most revolutionary doctrines that changed human thought.
This book could use seriously use a timeline; that would be a game changer with so much time being reviewed and complicated titles summing up different periods of time. It would be helpful in putting it all in perspective, allow the reader to check in on where he or she is on the journey of life, and would be a vast improvement from the drawings that consume too many pages of this book.
Wells, an interesting character, produced an interesting book that holds up over time but could have been more focused.
What is refreshing about this compact 500-page book is that Wells raises how much more has been learned, how past scientists were wrong in their calculations, and that there are few absolutes. It gives me hope that we can continue to learn and what we are taking as fact may not be right, especially when we are looking at the comprehensive history of the world. Yet, there are some absolutes like no living thing lasts forever, a fact that changes everything.
Wells starts, well, at the beginning. I always found it more boring to talk about the world before humans existed and even before humans started to develop the life-changing inventions like fire and language. He speaks about how the oceans had far less salt, that there were not flowering plants but trees were plentiful and tall. Wells talks in details about reptiles and the start of mammals in the Mesozoic Period. He speaks about how the mammal is a “family animal” that has continued until today. His discussion of discoveries of the Neanderthal in Germany did not hold up with time since so much more has been discovered since the publishing of this book. It reminds us that even today’s books will most likely be proven wrong or at least incomplete since science and discoveries continue.
The development of villages about 5,000 years ago, during the Neolithic period, was a game-changer. Societies were being established across Europe and Asia and even into Africa. Paleolithic man was much more of a wanderer, going from place to place. Another book I read spoke about when humans started to grow products for their consumption and, later, bartering rather than eat what they could capture, they also started to fight rather than simply leave and go somewhere else. Hunting people didn’t “own” any property but had large ranges. But Wells was confusing when he wrote about materials found in the 1950’s that showed the village of Jericho and that some villages dated back to 6,000 B.C. Words like “perhaps,” “about” and “very little known” sprinkle the book bringing doubt to what we really know and when the first of this or that existed. The author seemed to settle on 6-7,000 years ago when villages were first being established.
The earliest forms of government were priestly governments. He said that this approach lacked an efficient military leadership and envy between different religious factions. Because the army was not a professional, paid unit, as later defined, people could be easily bribed and, thus, controlled. The temple system had real issues but was the fundamental of earliest societies from the rest was built including the court system, the development of taxes, merchants (starting with ship builders), small retailers, and a growing number of independent property owners.
The discussion of religious rites and thoughts of death was fascinating. Neanderthals buried their dead with weapons and food, possibly because they thought it could be used in an afterlife.
Wells does an exceptional job in sharing how language and then writing became a turning point in the development of humans. Keeping track of history and business added to the development of our understanding of their lives and improved their lives considerably. Prior to language, humans thought of very little and were very literate. Their thought process didn’t allow them to invent so many items that brought upon civilization. Earlier languages consisted of a few hundred words with peasants getting along with only using less than a thousand words. Language developed slowly with many questions on how it was shared over larger geographical areas. Wells states that grammatical forms and the use of abstract ideas might have come as late as 400 to 500 generations ago. He states that the Aryan family of languages covered nearly all of Europe all the way to Russia, Armenia, Persia, and India. The Semitic set of languages were separate from the Aryan and were connected to Hebrew and Arabic. The Chinese (or Monosyllabic group) spread across China, Burma, and Tibet. He then tossed in there may have been even more primitive languages in Africa.
Writing really changed the development of humans, starting around 10,000 B.C. and 500 B.C. Men started to write stories about themselves, and their writing became more complex. With language and writing, music also developed. Ancient music had rhythm but no melody. Think of lots of noise – stomping, hand-clapping and primitive drumming. The Christian era changed that, and music became more sophisticated.
Wells speaks a lot about empires in his book: Sumerians, Sargon the First, Hammurabi, Egypt, and those in India and China. Alexander the Great, Psammetichus, Necho II, and Shi-Hwang-ti. There are lots of names and places tossed in as if it was a salad. It was interesting when Wells spoke about how Egypt developed around 5,000 B.C. in part due to the geographical safety the desert and sea provide the people.
Much of the book focuses on the Greek Empire. By 1,500 B.C., the Hellenes came to the land of Greece in various settlements of tribes. Their families were large, but their cities rarely exceeded 50,000 residents. Their leaders were called, interesting enough, Tyrants. They were the boss. By the sixth century B.C., government moved to what was called a democracy. Of course, it was not what we would consider a democracy but did give a voice to some, mostly with land. It was more like an oligarchy with some voice of the poor and put more of the tax burden on the rich. There were parties and leaders of parties but no government officials; decisions were more consensuses. With this system of limited leadership, vetoing an approach or program often held back progress. Even with this division in their system, there was unity within the Greeks due to a common language and financial system. They did not suffer an attack on their lands until 490 B.C. by the Persians. The author speaks about how the – later – Peloponnesian War that dragged on for 30 years wasted all the money and power of Greece. Unfortunately, the author’s description of the rise of Greece in literature, philosophy, and art was confusing and not focused. He reports that Plato was born in 427 B.C. but had few other clear statements about his life and work. In all the editions, one would have thought an editor would have made this rich time of history more pronounce.
Wells did a much better job describing life in India. Like Egypt, geography largely protected India with mountains, desert areas, and the ocean providing safety from war. Wells writes that for centuries, the history of India had been “happier, less fierce, and more dreamlike than any other history.” Love stories consume the history of the noblemen and the rajahs. Buddhistic doctrine of Karma brought happiness to future lives depending on how one lived the current one. He later spoke about India as being a “patchwork-quilt of states. Sometimes, such as during the Gupta Empire of the four through sixth centuries, bringing together a larger area for great literary activity. The organization of government had little impact on the lives of their people. Wells used the discussion of Buddhism to skip over to China and speak about how Buddhism and Taoism lived side by side, leading to similar religions today.
The book devotes an intense chapter on the rise and collapse of the Roman Empire, rising interesting issues of holding a country together that we see evident in our own country today. Founded in 753 B.C., at a time when much of the country was marsh land and forests. War was the focus of the day with Rome being in an area that was hard to hold, lacking the geography that would aid the conquerors. By 265 B.C., according to the census, there were 300,000 citizens under Rome’s dominion. Fighting broke out constantly between Rome and Carthage until Rome forces won a seven-year battle in about 240 B.C. Wells spoke about how peace of the two sides still left Carthage with a mess – looting on behalf of the returning soldiers who were not paid and disorder throughout the land. Wells make the point that cooler heads could have resulted in more progress and a better life for all. When Rome won their war with Carthage, they were punishing in severe ways, taking Spain, stealing most of their war ships, and imposing huge financial penalties. Taxes were shifted from citizens of Rome to the foreigner.
Looking for lessons from this book, chapter 26 provides many. The author speaks about how democracy was held back because of the lack of education of the population and the absence of a press that all could pull undisputed facts. He speaks to gerrymandering by Rome to control the vote and deny true representation. And he spoke to the growing super wealthy causing general dissatisfaction. It led to Julius Ceasar being named dictator for ten years in 46 B.C. then, the following year, dictator for life. Only the assassination of Ceasar by his former supporters changed the direction of the country. The attempt to have a republic collapsed largely because the good faith needed to hold together different views fell through. Their bond based on moral basis rather than a religious bond could not hold up into the first century B.C. People looked inward to what was personally desired rather than giving up some for the betterment of a system. The system turned to a monarchy.
Wells highlights the various groups of Roman emperors:
Tiberius (A.D. 14 to 37), a capable ruler but became deeply unpopular in Rome.
Caligula (A.D. 37 to 41), insane and eccentric. Murdered by his servants.
Claudius (A.D. 41 to 54), uncle of Caligula. Hardworking and capable. He expanded the empire to the west.
Nero (A.D. 54 to 68). Cruel, killing off family members. He became unpopular in Roam. Committed suicide.
Wells speaks to the years of order between 27 B.C. and A.D. 180 as “wasted opportunities” because it was years of spending rather than creating, where the rich grew richer and poor poorer. Limited reforms did take place on the use of slaves, like forbidding them to be required to participate in gladiator shows but the focus of society was to turn inward and not expand out to the growing cultures of India, China, or Persia. Wells says that the world “was not progressing during these two centuries of Roman prosperity” despite limited war or famine. Life was hardly worth living for the poor and enslaved. The author spells out that giving government to the rich and not spreading knowledge led to its downfall.
The book ends addressing the plight of the Jews, how they were rejected from their own land and about how Jesus preached from a boat upon the Lake of Galilee. He then moves to Asia where he does a vastly inadequate job in talking about this vast area of the world, drawing very little information and hurrying along a rich, interesting history.
Among so many facts, Wells raised in the book include:
The telescope, Wells contends powerfully, was a “new phase in human thought, a new vision of life.” He writes that this instrument “released a human imagination,” like no other.
It took man until the 18th century to study fossils systematically.
The diameter of our world is slightly under 8,000 miles.
Women probably started the industry of agriculture, using seeds and literally planting a home. They were responsible for food and collection of plants and probably decided to grow their own.
Books of the Old Testament were in existence, much as they are today, 100 years before the birth of Christ.
Ireland retained primitive life the longest, cut off from all the Keltic-speaking communities.
Almost all information about the personality of Jesus is from the four Gospels written a few decades after his death – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Historians put most emphasis on the Gospel of St. Mark. These were the most revolutionary doctrines that changed human thought.
This book could use seriously use a timeline; that would be a game changer with so much time being reviewed and complicated titles summing up different periods of time. It would be helpful in putting it all in perspective, allow the reader to check in on where he or she is on the journey of life, and would be a vast improvement from the drawings that consume too many pages of this book.
Wells, an interesting character, produced an interesting book that holds up over time but could have been more focused.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 1, 2016
I read just volume 1. Good book for a broad outline (though I prefer to go deep and read either primary sources or a story about a specific time in history). This gives a nice broad overview of important things in history. I like that it covers it everything (as an outline/summary), but is not focused on facts/dates/trivial things but on high level insights, great! Even the part that I thought would be very boring, which is the part before humans, was really interesting. Sometime it did get boring when it got into things I had no background on, as I couldn't follow it as well.
As an example, here are some quotes relevant to today's debates on climate change that I thought were interesting: (from 1919)
"It must be borne in mind that great changes of climate have always been in progress, that have sometimes stimulated and sometimes checked life.... About these changes of climate some explanations are necessary here. They are not regular changes; they are slow fluctuations between heat and cold. The reader must not think that because the sun and earth were once incandescent, the climatic history of the world is a simple story of cooling down... Such cold waves have always been going on everywhere, alternately with warmer conditions. And there have been periods of great wetness and periods of great dryness throughout the earth."
"Our world to-day seems to be emerging with fluctuations from a prolonged phase of adversity and extreme conditions. Half a million years ahead it may be a winterless world with trees and vegetation even in the polar circles."
"with the appearance of human communities, came what is perhaps the most powerful of all living influences upon climate. By fire and plough and axe man alters his world. By destroying forests and by irrigation man has already affected the climate of great regions of the world’s surface. The destruction of forests makes the seasons more extreme; this has happened, for instance, in the northeastern states of the United States of America. Moreover, the soil is no longer protected from the scour of rain, and is washed away, leaving only barren rock beneath. This has happened in Spain and Dalmatia and, some thousands of years earlier, in South Arabia. By irrigation, on the other hand, man restores the desert to life and mitigates climate. This process is going on in Northwest India and Australia. In the future, by making such operations worldwide and systematic, man may be able to control climate to an extent at which as yet we can only guess."
"...with the Pleistocene (a great majority of living species) there set in a long period of extreme conditions--it was the Great Ice Age. Glaciers spread from the poles towards the equator, until England to the Thames was covered in ice. Thereafter to our own time came a period of partial recovery."
This was written in 1919 or ealier!
As an example, here are some quotes relevant to today's debates on climate change that I thought were interesting: (from 1919)
"It must be borne in mind that great changes of climate have always been in progress, that have sometimes stimulated and sometimes checked life.... About these changes of climate some explanations are necessary here. They are not regular changes; they are slow fluctuations between heat and cold. The reader must not think that because the sun and earth were once incandescent, the climatic history of the world is a simple story of cooling down... Such cold waves have always been going on everywhere, alternately with warmer conditions. And there have been periods of great wetness and periods of great dryness throughout the earth."
"Our world to-day seems to be emerging with fluctuations from a prolonged phase of adversity and extreme conditions. Half a million years ahead it may be a winterless world with trees and vegetation even in the polar circles."
"with the appearance of human communities, came what is perhaps the most powerful of all living influences upon climate. By fire and plough and axe man alters his world. By destroying forests and by irrigation man has already affected the climate of great regions of the world’s surface. The destruction of forests makes the seasons more extreme; this has happened, for instance, in the northeastern states of the United States of America. Moreover, the soil is no longer protected from the scour of rain, and is washed away, leaving only barren rock beneath. This has happened in Spain and Dalmatia and, some thousands of years earlier, in South Arabia. By irrigation, on the other hand, man restores the desert to life and mitigates climate. This process is going on in Northwest India and Australia. In the future, by making such operations worldwide and systematic, man may be able to control climate to an extent at which as yet we can only guess."
"...with the Pleistocene (a great majority of living species) there set in a long period of extreme conditions--it was the Great Ice Age. Glaciers spread from the poles towards the equator, until England to the Thames was covered in ice. Thereafter to our own time came a period of partial recovery."
This was written in 1919 or ealier!
Read
April 22, 2014I wanted to read a brief history of nearly everything. I wanted to learn about the early empires, wars, battles, philosophies, and how the world has changed over time. I thought this would be the book for that. It could have been but I got too bored. I read the stuff I thought would be interesting and skipped over the parts I thought would be boring. I skimmed over the stuff in between. I still only got through the first 200 hundred pages before calling it quits. I thought the book would be easy to understand and follow but it was too difficult to remember all the technical names, etc. I started reading it because I wanted a simple outline of history spelled out for the layman like me and this book didn't do that for me. Also, it's almost 100 years old and I kept thinking how outdated it probably was. Oh well.
December 17, 2011
A .romp through history in a breezy and opinionated fashion. It has got it all from prehistoric times to Egypt, Greece, Rome, a sideways glance to India, China, and the rest of the world, the Crusades, Islam, the Renaissance and so on up through World War one. Not to be read in one go through, at least I didn't, but you can literally open the book randomly and find yourself absorbed. This is easily accessable, popular history. Wells must have sold a ton of these books because you can still find it at most used book stores or large used book sales. Pick it up and consider it a friend at your bedside.
January 9, 2008
A great outline of world history, from the formation of the solar system through WWII. Puts everything in perspective.
BUT, great as it is, I can't actually endorse this book. After reading it, it came to my attention that in all likelihood 'Outline' is a complete plagiarization of a book called 'The Web,' written by a feminist author named Florence Deeks. There is a book out there, which I haven't read but which I'll bet is interesting, called 'The Spinster and the Prophet: H.G. Wells, Florence Deeks, and the Case of the Plagiarized Text' (2000).
BUT, great as it is, I can't actually endorse this book. After reading it, it came to my attention that in all likelihood 'Outline' is a complete plagiarization of a book called 'The Web,' written by a feminist author named Florence Deeks. There is a book out there, which I haven't read but which I'll bet is interesting, called 'The Spinster and the Prophet: H.G. Wells, Florence Deeks, and the Case of the Plagiarized Text' (2000).
August 6, 2011
I like Wells' perspective on history, one even finds a subtle humor in here. Though large portions of it is now outdated, it is a great piece if you wish to get the zeitgeist of what folks in this age thought of history.
January 17, 2008
Maybe I'm just a big history geek but I couldn't put this down. I found the ancient history the most interesting.
May 18, 2008
Even though the history is technically out of date; I enjoy reading what H.G. Wells had set out to do with his history and how it tries very had not to be euro-centric.
May 7, 2012
Intensely valuable from a historiographical perspective. Great read in general
January 12, 2016
Very interesting non fiction reference book from H.G. Wells!
May 12, 2024
H.G. Wells is more popular nowadays as a pioneering writer of science fiction. He wrote the Time Machine and The Island of Dr. Moreau. However, he was also a writer of history, and The Outline of History is one of his most well-regarded works of non-fiction. As history is broad, and one huge tome can be written on just a few eventful years, to be able to summarize significant events in history is laudable.
This was what H. G. Wells did. His introduction of the concept of the Old Man that would become the God concept later on was amusing and insightful. More importantly, however, he was able to provide more nuance into Roman history immediately prior to the Pax Romana: even despite annihilating Carthage, Rome still had an identity crisis with itself as a nation. Their method of government was prone to corruption and gerrymandering, and empowered the devious and the corrupt, while keeping the majority of the Romans (despite the publication of the Laws of the Twelve Tables) voiceless in terms of policy and governance. There were occasional attempts by the Gracchi (Tiberius and Gaius) to revert the power of the aristocrats back to a more equitable distribution among the people. Of course, both of them were killed. Gaius is a more ambiguous character, but despite his inconsistencies still sought to enfranchise the Roman people. Civil war had exploded between Marius, who wished for a united Italy, and Sulla, who wished to preserve the aristocratic rule of the Senate. Sulla managed to eventually triumph, restored law and order while reducing some power of the senate, repealed many inhumane laws, and then retired from politics.
It would take about 30 years for a dominant character to take the reins of the Roman republic, and this was Julius Caesar. For all his achievements, however, Wells questions the historical portrayal of Caesar as a demigod. He wasn’t an excellent administrator (especially when compared to his successor, Augustus), and was rather magnetized by Cleopatra’s charms, which blunted his capacity to rule. Nevertheless, his murder allowed the rule of Rome to shift into a princeps – or a ruling prince, which was realized by Augustus and then continued. Most of the emperors that came immediately after were horrible, except for Claudius. The reign of this group ended with Nero, and triggered a war of succession, known as the Year of the Four Emperors: Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian.
Vespasian emerged triumphant, and the short-lived Flavian dynasty started. The next dynasty would herald a series of great Roman emperors, and this would be the Nerva-Antonine dynasty.
H. G. Wells peppers his text with strong opinions and historiographic insight, because he also did the research. Although most of the text is irrelevant to me at this point, I appreciate his capacity in elucidating complex concepts of the historical past.
He concludes the section on the Roman empire with this: “The clue to all its [Roman empire] failure lies in the absence of any free mental activity and any organization for the increase, development, and application of knowledge. It respected wealth and despised science. It gave government to the rich, and imagined that wise men could be bought and bargained for in the slave markets when they were needed. It was, therefore, a colossally ignorant and unimaginative empire. It foresaw nothing.”
One could transpose his insight to the Philippines today, and it will still be relevant.
This was what H. G. Wells did. His introduction of the concept of the Old Man that would become the God concept later on was amusing and insightful. More importantly, however, he was able to provide more nuance into Roman history immediately prior to the Pax Romana: even despite annihilating Carthage, Rome still had an identity crisis with itself as a nation. Their method of government was prone to corruption and gerrymandering, and empowered the devious and the corrupt, while keeping the majority of the Romans (despite the publication of the Laws of the Twelve Tables) voiceless in terms of policy and governance. There were occasional attempts by the Gracchi (Tiberius and Gaius) to revert the power of the aristocrats back to a more equitable distribution among the people. Of course, both of them were killed. Gaius is a more ambiguous character, but despite his inconsistencies still sought to enfranchise the Roman people. Civil war had exploded between Marius, who wished for a united Italy, and Sulla, who wished to preserve the aristocratic rule of the Senate. Sulla managed to eventually triumph, restored law and order while reducing some power of the senate, repealed many inhumane laws, and then retired from politics.
It would take about 30 years for a dominant character to take the reins of the Roman republic, and this was Julius Caesar. For all his achievements, however, Wells questions the historical portrayal of Caesar as a demigod. He wasn’t an excellent administrator (especially when compared to his successor, Augustus), and was rather magnetized by Cleopatra’s charms, which blunted his capacity to rule. Nevertheless, his murder allowed the rule of Rome to shift into a princeps – or a ruling prince, which was realized by Augustus and then continued. Most of the emperors that came immediately after were horrible, except for Claudius. The reign of this group ended with Nero, and triggered a war of succession, known as the Year of the Four Emperors: Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian.
Vespasian emerged triumphant, and the short-lived Flavian dynasty started. The next dynasty would herald a series of great Roman emperors, and this would be the Nerva-Antonine dynasty.
H. G. Wells peppers his text with strong opinions and historiographic insight, because he also did the research. Although most of the text is irrelevant to me at this point, I appreciate his capacity in elucidating complex concepts of the historical past.
He concludes the section on the Roman empire with this: “The clue to all its [Roman empire] failure lies in the absence of any free mental activity and any organization for the increase, development, and application of knowledge. It respected wealth and despised science. It gave government to the rich, and imagined that wise men could be bought and bargained for in the slave markets when they were needed. It was, therefore, a colossally ignorant and unimaginative empire. It foresaw nothing.”
One could transpose his insight to the Philippines today, and it will still be relevant.
June 21, 2025
The Outline of History, Volume 1: Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind by H.G. Wells, I added this book to my Must Read list back on December 12, 2017 and was able to get this book using Hoopla. Back in 2017 I wanted to read all of H G Wells books and this was one I was especially interested in because I thought Wells wrote only Science Fiction so I found it interesting he wrote this massive 1,220 page history book.
The Outline of History, subtitled either "The Whole Story of Man" or "Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind", chronicles the history of the world from the origin of the Earth to the First World War. It appeared in an illustrated version of 24 fortnightly installments beginning on 22 November 1919 and was published as a single volume in 1920. It sold more than two million copies, was translated into many languages, and had a considerable impact on the teaching of history in institutions of higher education. Wells modelled the Outline on the Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot.
Having coined the phrase "the war that will end war," H. G. Wells was disillusioned by the World War I peace settlement. Convinced that humanity needed to awaken to the instability of the world order and remember lessons from the past, the author of numerous science fiction classics set out to write about history. Wells hoped to remind mankind of its common past, provide it with a basis for international patriotism, and guide it to renounce war. The work became immensely popular, earning him world renown and solidifying his reputation as one of the most influential voices of his time. Topics range from the world before man and the first living things to civilizations, religions, wars, and everything in between. Wells truly covers the whole of human history.
Great read indeed
The Outline of History, subtitled either "The Whole Story of Man" or "Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind", chronicles the history of the world from the origin of the Earth to the First World War. It appeared in an illustrated version of 24 fortnightly installments beginning on 22 November 1919 and was published as a single volume in 1920. It sold more than two million copies, was translated into many languages, and had a considerable impact on the teaching of history in institutions of higher education. Wells modelled the Outline on the Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot.
Having coined the phrase "the war that will end war," H. G. Wells was disillusioned by the World War I peace settlement. Convinced that humanity needed to awaken to the instability of the world order and remember lessons from the past, the author of numerous science fiction classics set out to write about history. Wells hoped to remind mankind of its common past, provide it with a basis for international patriotism, and guide it to renounce war. The work became immensely popular, earning him world renown and solidifying his reputation as one of the most influential voices of his time. Topics range from the world before man and the first living things to civilizations, religions, wars, and everything in between. Wells truly covers the whole of human history.
Great read indeed
May 19, 2020
It was an okay read, but was definitely not what I expected. Beginning with primordial ooze and progressing through the rise of Islam in volume one, it is an exhaustive and exhausting read of evolution through the rise of man.
Wells is no fan of any great personality in history, and even such literary greats an Homer, he ascribes the Iliad and the Odyssey to nothing more than a mere transcription of evolutionary tales told for thousands of years.
He cares not one whit for religion if any sort, ascribing the most sacred and purest of motives, but alas, each groups of disciples, no matter the leader, managed to take those pure, sacred teachings and reduce them to unintelligible mishmash and the basest of all misinformation and misinterpretation.
Most of history fares well and is easy to understand, but Eastern Europe and eastward is a mishmash of names, races, languages and their admixtures are impossible to follow unless you’re a linguistic or historical expert.
He has a very low opinion of the progressive of mankind in general, ascribing the basest of motives and actions to virtually all world historical figures.
One annoying habit—to me at least—is the use of ‘probably’, ‘most likely’, ‘possibly’, plus his use of the statement ‘little remains of this time period’ where he then takes the route of most amateur historians who want to insert opinion where he just told us no facts exist.
I’ll read volume two eventually, but at least now I know what I’m in for.
Wells is no fan of any great personality in history, and even such literary greats an Homer, he ascribes the Iliad and the Odyssey to nothing more than a mere transcription of evolutionary tales told for thousands of years.
He cares not one whit for religion if any sort, ascribing the most sacred and purest of motives, but alas, each groups of disciples, no matter the leader, managed to take those pure, sacred teachings and reduce them to unintelligible mishmash and the basest of all misinformation and misinterpretation.
Most of history fares well and is easy to understand, but Eastern Europe and eastward is a mishmash of names, races, languages and their admixtures are impossible to follow unless you’re a linguistic or historical expert.
He has a very low opinion of the progressive of mankind in general, ascribing the basest of motives and actions to virtually all world historical figures.
One annoying habit—to me at least—is the use of ‘probably’, ‘most likely’, ‘possibly’, plus his use of the statement ‘little remains of this time period’ where he then takes the route of most amateur historians who want to insert opinion where he just told us no facts exist.
I’ll read volume two eventually, but at least now I know what I’m in for.
July 22, 2024
So far (last qtr of 1st volume) it has been...ahh interesting. We'll be leaving off at about 600 a.d.
This is quite an undertaking: the history of the world. It certainly is a noble effort. However, one person pontificating on the world from the first rocks and living things to post WWII (posthumously) should instead be an editing team effort. I doubt it's possible to record history without letting one's own bias creep in. Such is the case here: really no mention of the "New World" and Asia and Africa take a back seat in the chronology. And ditto for the life/effects of Christ on earth. His non-religious bias seems to slight the effect of Christ's presence and how it drove the world in addition to helping the ailing Roman Empire crack and fall.
He is very Anglophile in delivery. If he were alive today, he'd turn this work into a million podcasts. He wanted to make it a read 'for the general public'; however, he deviates away from subject in long winded editorial and I think he loses someone who wants summarized facts and perhaps some mention of historians' interpretive consensus. A person can get 'lost' in this long-winded work.
I keep on reading, and yes skimming to get the general gist of the times. Fo this, the book serves its purpose. I plan to use 21st century hacks and google some areas that left me saying "huh?"
Interesting this non-religious man was quoted at a late point in life with these words:
"Religion is the first thing and the last thin and until a man has found God, he begins at the beginning, he works to no end."
This is quite an undertaking: the history of the world. It certainly is a noble effort. However, one person pontificating on the world from the first rocks and living things to post WWII (posthumously) should instead be an editing team effort. I doubt it's possible to record history without letting one's own bias creep in. Such is the case here: really no mention of the "New World" and Asia and Africa take a back seat in the chronology. And ditto for the life/effects of Christ on earth. His non-religious bias seems to slight the effect of Christ's presence and how it drove the world in addition to helping the ailing Roman Empire crack and fall.
He is very Anglophile in delivery. If he were alive today, he'd turn this work into a million podcasts. He wanted to make it a read 'for the general public'; however, he deviates away from subject in long winded editorial and I think he loses someone who wants summarized facts and perhaps some mention of historians' interpretive consensus. A person can get 'lost' in this long-winded work.
I keep on reading, and yes skimming to get the general gist of the times. Fo this, the book serves its purpose. I plan to use 21st century hacks and google some areas that left me saying "huh?"
Interesting this non-religious man was quoted at a late point in life with these words:
"Religion is the first thing and the last thin and until a man has found God, he begins at the beginning, he works to no end."
December 16, 2023
I first discovered this book when it was referenced on Khan Academy, in the article 'READ: Recordkeeping and History', in Unit 3, in the course 'World History Project - Origins to the Present'. The article states that the author tried to write a history of the entire Universe just after World War I, but he complained that “chronology only begins to be precise enough to specify the exact year of any event after the establishment of the eras of the First Olympiad [776 BCE] and the building of Rome [753 BCE].” This is an example of how written records have the serious limitation of only reaching back a few thousand years.
September 1, 2024
If you already know a bit of history, there is no reason to read this book. Wells really isn't lying when he says it's an "outline." There's a few interesting and new things here and there, but if you found this book, chances are that you're already familiar with most of the stuff he talks about.
Only reason I didn't rate it lower: it was interesting to see a historical perspective on the past we know. For instance, quite in line with his time, Wells can't help but note the impact of "Aryan peoples" here and there, even though he insists that Europe was a backwater until relatively recently.
Only reason I didn't rate it lower: it was interesting to see a historical perspective on the past we know. For instance, quite in line with his time, Wells can't help but note the impact of "Aryan peoples" here and there, even though he insists that Europe was a backwater until relatively recently.
April 17, 2019
Very dry in spots but quite interesting in others--and interspersed with Wells' opinions (some of which are on-point and others off the mark) that demonstrates that at the very least Wells has given various points of history much thought. Adherents of just about any religion will doubtless find fault with some of Wells' conclusions as he is dismissive of any divine manifestation. I've got to give it an extra star just for the vast scope of the undertaking.
August 28, 2017
my book is vol ll only
The Outline of History
The whole story of man
new enlarged edition
c1949 Doubleday Garden City Books
p 653 to 1288
ch XXXl through XL
Christendom and the Crusades through The Second World War
brought up to the present by Raymond Postgate
hardcover with a dust jacket
the volume is perfect and the dust jacket is ragged
The Outline of History
The whole story of man
new enlarged edition
c1949 Doubleday Garden City Books
p 653 to 1288
ch XXXl through XL
Christendom and the Crusades through The Second World War
brought up to the present by Raymond Postgate
hardcover with a dust jacket
the volume is perfect and the dust jacket is ragged
January 12, 2021
I only read the first 14 chapters, working on Will Durant's reading list "100 Books for a Superior Education." I was very surprised to find that at least this much of Wells' Outline of History stands up pretty well. The science he's referencing has changed a lot, but Wells seems to come down on the right side of each of those changes. I thought it was a great read, even at a century old!
June 10, 2017
Definitely dated, but offers an interesting perspective of our past, from our past.
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