history/geography

Item Description

H. G. Wells is perhaps best known for the drama created by the airing of his science fiction "The War of the Worlds"  read by Orson Welles in 1938. But he was also a serious author and historian, and after finding no one who would write a history of the world, he began to draft this two volume set. It encompasses history from the first living things through the first decades of the 20th century.  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. Subsequent updates were made throughout the century; this version, with additions by Raymond Postgate, extends through World War II.

What makes this work particularly interesting is how much what we know has changed, but how Wells was able to avoid so many of eurocentric and racist concepts of his time.  And Malham Wakin, of the US Air Force Academy, encouraged his students to challenge a statement made by Wells in The Outline of History: "The professional military mind is by necessity an inferior and unimaginative mind; no man of high intellectual quality would willingly imprison his gifts in such a calling."

The illustrations are beautiful black and white etchings, the volumes are in excellent condition and the original dust covers are in very good shape.

Used - Very good

Published 1949.  1103 pages. 8-1/2 x 5-3/4 x 1-3/4" (each volume). Hardback

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