Abstract
ON the appearance of the first number we directed attention to the new edition of Mr. H. G. Wells's “Outline of History,” the serial issue of which has recently been completed. The “Outline” has been almost entirely rewritten, brought up-to-date, and provided with a fresh set of illustrations—perhaps as remarkable a collection of photographs covering all sides of human evolution and history as has ever been gathered together within the covers of one book. Apart from matters of opinion, in which Mr. Wells is characteristically individual—it is emphatically Mr. Wells's outline of history—there is little even in matters of detail which requires criticism. To have mastered so vast a body of material, and to have kept abreast of current opinion on so many technical subjects, is in itself no small intellectual feat. To take an example only, he is prepared to assign the Taungs man a place in his evolutionary scheme, although this skull was discovered only while the book was in process of writing. On certain points in dealing with the bronze and iron ages, and on ethnological questions relating to the origin and migrations of races, the views adopted by Mr. Wells are open to argument, just as his views of great personalities, such as Alexander, Julius Caesar, or Napoleon, invite or even provoke discussion. These, however, are little more than matters of detail in relation to the broad scheme of evolutionary history which Mr. Wells has set himself to expound.
The Outline of History: a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
By H. G. Wells. New edition, fully revised. Parts 1-24. (London: Cassell and Co., Ltd., 1925–1926.) 1s. 3d. net each part.
Mr. Belloc objects to "The Outline of History".
By H. G. Wells. (The Forum Series.) Pp. vii + 55. (London: Watts and Co., 1926.) 1s. net.
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Our Bookshelf. Nature 118, 872 (1926). https://doi.org/10.1038/118872a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/118872a0