The Outline of History, by H.G. Wells (4 volumes, HC, 1922, $10 for the set, which is 1/3 the price quoted on the internet.) Amazingly these books are still in print, or at least they were in 2005!
Wells was an author, historian, socialist and teacher. He learned to love reading when he broke his leg at age 8. He started working as a draper, but soon got a scholarship to the Royal College of Science. There he studied biology under Huxley. As a socialist and pacifist he was against entering WWI, but after the war started he changed his mind and supported it. After WWI ended he visited with Lenin and Trotsky in Russia, and found himself disillusioned with the direction Russia was moving in. He wrote The Outline of History while he was still disillusioned. Later he would again travel to Russia, meet with Stalin, and find him a better leader, although too "rigid". (Stalin was supposed to have thought Wells a fool.) Wells is known as one of the fathers of science fiction and, as one who foretold the advanced weapons of WWII, including the atomic bomb. What an amazing man! These four volumes will be avail. on 9/20.
