H.G. Wells'S World Reborn

H. G. Wells's World Reborn: The Outline of History and its Companions explores the phenomenon that was H. G. Wells's Outline of History and subsequent volumes built around the biological and social sciences. First published in 1919, the Outline was immensely successful, starting a fad for explanations of the world aimed at a knowledge-hungry middle-class audience. Ross examines the Wellsian view of universal history, both in its conception and its execution, and also looks at the Outline's reception by contemporary historians, especially those associated with the American New History movement. He also surveys the scope, and relative strengths of the two subsequent and more moderately successful volumes: The Science of Life and The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind. In a series of chapters, he also sets Wells's progressive, Enlightenment-based view of the world against more current attitudes towards race, colonialism, feminism, and eugenics.