A Short History of the World is a non-fictional historic work by English author H. G. Wells, largely inspired by Wells's earlier 1919 work The Outline of History. The book summarises the scientific knowledge of the time regarding the history of Earth and life. It starts with its origins, goes on to explain the development of the Earth and life on Earth, reaching primitive thought and the development of humankind from the Cradle of Civilisation.The book ends with the outcome of the First World War, the Russian famine of 1921, and the League of Nations in 1922. In 1934 Albert Einstein recommended the book for the study of history as a means of interpreting progress in civilisation. - Summary adopted from Wikipedia
Chapters
1 The World in Space 6 min 2 The World in Time 6 min 3 The Beginnings of Life 6 min 4 The Age of Fishes 9 min 5 The Age of the Coal Swamps 10 min 6 The Age of Reptiles 9 min 7 The First Birds and the First Mammals 10 min 8 The Age of Mammals 9 min 9 Monkeys, Apes and Sub-Men 9 min 10 The Neanderthaler And the Rhodesian Man 9 min 11 The First True Men 10 min 12 Primitive Thought 10 min 13 The Beginnings of Cultivation 10 min 14 Primitive Neolithic Civilizations 11 min 15 Sumeria, Early Egypt And Writing 10 min 16 Primitive Nomadic Peoples 9 min 17 The First Sea-Going Peoples 11 min 18 Egypt, Babylon And Assyria 15 min 19 The Primitive Aryans 11 min 20 The Last Babylonian Empire and the Empire of Darius I 9 min 21 The Early History of the Jews 12 min 22 Priests and Prophets in Judea 10 min 23 The Greeks 12 min 24 The Wars of the Greeks and Persians 9 min 25 The Splendour of Greece 8 min 26 The Empire of Alexander the Great 10 min 27 The Museum and Library at Alexandria 12 min 28 The Life of Gautama Buddha 12 min 29 King Asoka 5 min 30 Confucius and Lao Tse 12 min 31 Rome Comes into History 12 min 32 Rome and Carthage 10 min 33 The Growth of the Roman Empire 25 min 34 Between Rome and China 10 min 35 The Common Man's Life Under the Early Roman Empire 14 min 36 Religious Developments Under the Roman Empire 15 min 37 The Teaching of Jesus 14 min 38 The Development of Doctrinal Christianity 9 min 39 The Barbarians Break the Empire into East and West 10 min 40 The Huns and the End of the Western Empire 13 min 41 The Byzantine and Sassanid Empires 10 min 42 The Dynasties of Suy And Tang in China 5 min 43 Muhammad and Islam 8 min 44 The Great Days of the Arabs 8 min 45 The Development of Latin Christendom 18 min 46 The Crusades and the Age of Papal Dominion 21 min 47 Recalcitrant Princes and the Great Schism 21 min 48 The Mongol Conquests 11 min 49 The Intellectual Revival of the Europeans 21 min 50 The Reformation of the Latin Church 9 min 51 The Emperor Charles V 20 min 52 The Age of Political Experiments; of Grand Monarchy and Parliaments and Republicanism in Europe 25 min 53 The New Empires of the Europeans in Asia and Overseas 11 min 54 The American War of Independence 12 min 55 The French Revolution and the Restoration of Monarchy in France 18 min 56 The Uneasy Peace in Europe that Followed the Fall of Napoleon 10 min 57 The Development of Material Knowledge 21 min 58 The Industrial Revolution 10 min 59 The Development of Modern Political and Social Ideas 28 min 60 The Expansion of the United States 19 min 61 The Rise of Germany to Predominance in Europe 4 min 62 The New Overseas Empires of the Steamship and Railway 13 min 63 European Aggression in Asia, and the Rise of Japan 12 min 64 The British Empire in 1914 5 min 65 The Age of Armament in Europe, and the Great War of 1914-18 11 min 66 The Revolution and Famine in Russia 11 min 67 The Political and Social Reconstruction of the World 15 min 68 Chronological table 30 min
