HISTORY OF THE WORLD
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Author
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
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General Book Summary
H.G. Wells' 'History of the World' is a sweeping non-fiction account of Earth's development from its cosmic origins to the emergence of early human civilizations. The work begins by placing Earth in its astronomical context, describing the solar system's scale and the planet's formation over billions of years from a molten mass to a world capable of supporting life. The narrative traces the evolution of life through geological ages: from the earliest marine organisms in the Cambrian period, through the Age of Fishes, the Coal Swamps era with its giant insects and amphibians, to the Age of Reptiles dominated by dinosaurs and pterodactyls. Wells explains how climatic changes and the development of warm-bloodedness allowed birds and mammals to survive the extinction of the great reptiles. The book then follows mammalian evolution through the Cainozoic period, emphasizing the crucial development of brain capacity and social behavior that distinguished mammals from their reptilian predecessors. Wells traces the primate line through various proto-human species: Pithecanthropus erectus, Heidelberg Man, Eoanthropus (Piltdown Man), and the Neanderthalers—beings who were almost but not quite human. The arrival of true humans (Homo sapiens) around 30,000-40,000 years ago marks a turning point. Wells describes the Cro-Magnon people and their remarkable cave art, their hunting culture, and gradual technological advancement. He explores primitive thought, the development of religion and magic, and the crucial transition from hunting to agriculture during the Neolithic period. The work concludes by examining the spread of Neolithic civilization across the Old World, the development of early priesthoods and astronomical knowledge, and briefly touches on the parallel but distinct civilizations that arose in the Americas—the Maya, Mexican, and Peruvian cultures with their elaborate calendars and blood sacrifice rituals. Throughout, Wells emphasizes the interconnectedness of human development and the gradual accumulation of knowledge that led to modern civilization.
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Book Excerpt
I THE WORLD IN SPACE
The story of our world is a story that is still very imperfectly known. A couple of hundred years ago men possessed the history of little more than the last three thousand years. What happened before that time was a matter of legend and speculation. Over a large part of the civilized world it was believed and taught that the world had been created suddenly in 4004 B.C., though authorities differed as to whether this had occurred in the spring or autumn of that year. This fantastically precise misconception was based upon a too literal interpretation of the Hebrew Bible, and upon rather arbitrary theological assumptions connected therewith. Such ideas have long since been abandoned by religious teachers, and it is universally recognized that the universe in which we live has to all appearances existed for an enormous period of time and possibly for endless time. Of course there may be deception in these appearances, as a room may be made to seem endless by putting mirrors facing each other at either end. But that the universe in which we live has existed only for six or seven thousand years may be regarded as an altogether exploded idea.
The earth, as everybody knows nowadays, is a spheroid, a sphere slightly compressed, orange fashion, with a diameter of nearly 8,000 miles. Its spherical shape has been known at least to a limited number of intelligent people for nearly 2,500 years, but before that time it was supposed to be flat, and various ideas which now seem fantastic were entertained about its relations to the sky and the stars and planets. We know now that it rotates upon its axis (which is about 24 miles shorter than its equatorial diameter) every twenty-four hours, and that this is the cause of the alternations of day and night, that it circles about the sun in a slightly distorted and slowly variable oval path in a year. Its distance from the sun varies between ninety-one and a half millions at its nearest and ninety-four and a half million miles.
LUMINOUS SPIRAL CLOUDS OF MATTER “LUMINOUS SPIRAL CLOUDS OF MATTER”
(Nebula photographed 1910)
_Photo: G. W. Ritchey_
About the earth circles a smaller sphere, the moon, at an average distance of 239,000 miles. Earth and moon are not the only bodies to travel round the sun. There are also the planets, Mercury and Venus, at distances of thirty-six and sixty-seven millions of...