A Short History of the World

A Short History of the World compresses the development of Earth, life, humanity, and civilization into a continuous survey for the general reader. H. G. Wells begins with planetary origins and the scientific knowledge available in his period, then moves through biological development, early human thought, and the emergence of organized societies.

The scale remains global and chronological. Civilizations, religions, political systems, migrations, and conflicts appear as parts of a connected human history instead of isolated national narratives. Wells aims to provide a framework broad enough to support later study of a particular country or era.

Modern events bring the account to its endpoint. Its final stretch covers the aftermath of global war, Russia's 1921 famine, and the League of Nations established in 1922. History approaches the author's own moment, where industrial conflict and attempts at international organization were still unfolding.

Wells wrote this book afresh after The Outline of History; he did not present it as a simple condensation of the larger project. Its shorter form serves a different purpose: restoring a coherent sense of sequence for people unable to work through extensive maps and time charts. The result is both a period document and an ambitious act of synthesis, revealing how one early twentieth-century writer organized the “great adventure” of humankind.