A Short History of the World is a period-piece non-fictional historic work by H.G. Wells first published by Cassell & Co, Ltd Publishing in 1922. It was republished under Penguin Classics in 2006. The book was largely inspired by Wells earlier 1919 work The Outline of History

The Outline of History

The Outline of History, subtitled either "The Whole Story of Man" or "Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind", is a book by H. G. Wells published in 1919...

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The book is 344 pages in total, and tells of the history of the world, starting with the believed origins of the Earth around 2,000 million years ago, now known to be 4,404 million years according to 2005 estimates. The book then goes on to explain the, at the time believed, development of the Earth and life on Earth, until 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

Russian famine of 1921

The Russian famine of 1921, also known as Povolzhye famine, which began in the early spring of that year, and lasted through 1922, was a severe famine that occurred in Bolshevik Russia...

, and the League of Nations

League of Nations

The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...

in 1922.