The Outline of History by H.G.Wells (1925)

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The Outline of History - Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind by H.G.Wells

Name: The Outline of History by H.G.Wells (1925)
SKU: mscvanons
Price: 650.00 ZAR
Availability: SoldOut

TWO VOLUMES, published by The Waverley Book Company, 1925, complete, hardcovers, illustrated, set is 22.5 cms x 27.8 cms x 6.7 cms, condition: very good.

With The Outline of History Wells started a craze that lasted throughout the 1920s for copycat outlines on every conceivable subject. Coming right after the carnage of World War I, the Outline was neither unduly pessimistic and cynical about the human condition nor Pollyannaish about humanity's future. Instead, it offered an account of the development of the world's civilizations up to the present, showing its readers that an enlightened future depended on a clear, unprejudiced view of the past.

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 As well as a few out of date ideas that let down Well's huge intellect.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.

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The Outline of History - Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind by H.G.Wells

TWO VOLUMES, published by The Waverley Book Company, 1925, complete, hardcovers, illustrated, set is 22.5 cms x 27.8 cms x 6.7 cms, condition: very good.

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The Outline of History - Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind by H.G.Wells

TWO VOLUMES, published by The Waverley Book Company, 1925, complete, hardcovers, illustrated, set is 22.5 cms x 27.8 cms x 6.7 cms, condition: very good.

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