The Outline of History

What Hacker News says

1. WillAdamsJun 2025
   G.K. Chesterton and H.G. Wells seemed to think so in their histories of England (though note that Wells' work is controversial due to an accusation of plagiarism).

   Both are available at Project Gutenberg and Librivox:

   >"A Short History of England" by G. K. Chesterton is a historical account written in the early 20th century. The book provides a unique perspective on English history, challenging traditional narratives often neglected by popular histories. Chesterton seeks to illuminate the experiences of the average citizen throughout England's past, particularly during the medieval period, arguing that important aspects of the populace’s legacy have been overlooked.

   https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20897

   >"The Outline of History: Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind" by H. G. Wells is a historical account written in the early 20th century. This comprehensive work aims to provide a continuous narrative detailing the story of life and humanity from its origins to the present, emphasizing a universal approach to history that transcends individual nations or periods. The book serves as an exploration of how human civilizations have developed over vast stretches of time and how they relate to broader scientific and societal changes.

   https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45368

   Show morethread
2. defrostJul 2024
   > So nah, I'm not asking you for anything, just don't be so reckless. Once you go down that path, you can't really go back.

   Out of curiousity, who do you think yo are talking to? A US Trump supporter maybe? I'm neither.

   From my PoV, as little as that matters, your responses have been nonsensical and off kilter since https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40959062

   What, exactly, is the correct answer to

   > Never read a history book?

   Is it "No, I have never read a history book" or is it "Yes, I have never read a history book" ?

   Near as I can tell you leapt to the arrogant and presumptive position that I had somehow never read a history book.

   If it helps I read a A Short History of the World (1922)* H.G.Wells back in about 1974 or so .. and a few hundred others since.

   While I appreciate your unsolicited advice here and the spirit in which you offer it it does rather appear to be directed at somebody entirely not me.

   Perhaps you're prone to rush into responses without engaging any thought or contemplation?

   * That and his The Outline of History weren't too bad for 1920|1930's British PoV History, not definitive nor authorative but not too shabby - Arnold J. Toynbee defended them along the lines of decent for the general public.

   Show morethread
3. dredmorbiusJul 2021
   I found the quote I was looking for, it's in Arthur S. Iberal, Toward a General Science of Viable Systems (1972), and he's quoting Arnold Toynbee, A Study of History (1962). The passage concerns looking backwards rather than forwards, though the sentiment is similar:

   There is a strong tendency to depreciate works ... which are created by single mids, and the depreciation becomes the more emphatic the nearer such works approximate to being 'Universal Histories'. For example, Mr. H. G. Wells', The Outline of History was received with unmistakable hostility by a number of historical specialists. They criticized severely the errors which they discovered at the points where the writer, in his long journey through time and space, happened to traverse their tiny allotments. They seemed nnot to realize that, in re-living the entire life of Mankind as a single imaginative experience; Mr. Wells was achieving something which they themselves would hardly have dared to attempt -- something, perhaps, of which they had never conceived the possibility. In fact, the purpose and value of Mr. Wells' book seem to have been better appreciated by the general public than by the professional historians of the day.

   As to specificity of predictions, the example I like to use is of distinguishing between chronological predictions, that a specific even will happen on a specific schedule, and trigger or relational predictions, that one event or set of relationships predicates another.

   If a few minutes after 9 a.m. on the morning of 10 September 2001, you'd been standing on the corner of Liberty and West streets in lower Manhattan, looking north, and somebody were to ask you how much longer the two towers across the way would stand, your guess might have been decades to a century or more. If someone asked you the same question 24 hours later, your estimate might have been revised downwards considerably.

   Geology is a study which is remarkably imprecise in predicting when specific large-magnitude events will occur (earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, etc.), though it has developed a very strong facility for suggesting where such indcidents are likely (and more pointedly, where not). The temporal uncertainty is a given due to the domain, characteristics, and timeline. The locational certainty is due largely to the predictability of what dynamics and structures give rise to events. (Yes, there are still surprises in both dimensions, though these tend to accrue additional knowledge.)

   All of the social and behavioural sciences have the handicap that the studies themselves exist within the system they are studying. Psychology, economics, sociology, political science, etc., operate within domains in which they are themselves among the variables and causal agents. Physical and biological sciences, for the most part, do not. This is seems to me a principle further confounding factor for the behavioural sciences, though it's not an insurmountable one. Even within those domains, activities and actions exist within constraint parameters, and eventually those constraints (one might call them ... limits) interpose.

   Peter Turchin is among those who's been doing interesting work in computational history, with some success.

   Show morethread
4. dredmorbiusMar 2017
   Will and Ariel Durant's Lessons of History. I particularly recommend the audio recording, which includes additional interviews and asides from the Durants. Short (~115 pages), but highly informative.

   http://www.worldcat.org/title/lessons-of-history-by-will-and...

   http://www.worldcat.org/title/lessons-of-history-revised-ed/...

   Vaclav Smil, Energy in World History. Arguably a far more significant basis for describing what has transpired. Manfred Weissenbacher's Sources of Power covers much the same topic, though at far greater length (not always relevance), and slightly unevenly. Daniel Yergin's The Prize addresses specifically oil's impact (and history), and was mind-opening for me.

   Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation. The Industrial Revolution and emergence of the modern technological world.

   http://www.worldcat.org/title/origins-of-our-time-the-great-...

   David Christian, Big History. This goes back somewhat before ancient times, to the Big Bang.

   http://www.worldcat.org/title/big-history/oclc/940282526&ref...

   Add to that a good overall outline. H.G. Wells, Outline of History is somewhat in the tradition of David Christian's (and Christian cites it as a prior version of Big History). It's dated and jingoistic, but serves itself to show that viewpoints and perspectives change with time. Arnold Toynbee's History of the World is another, though larger. The Durants' Story of Civilization another.

   http://www.worldcat.org/title/outline-of-history-being-a-pla...

   http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=+au%3Atoynbee+arnold+joseph...

   http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3Adurant+ti%3Astory+of+c...

   Will Durant's Story of Philosophy gets at the ideas which have shaped history. James Burke, Connections and The Day the Universe Changed cover similar ground. Both have extensive bibliographies for further reading.

   http://www.worldcat.org/title/story-of-philosophy-the-lives-...

   http://www.worldcat.org/title/connections/oclc/145746383&ref...

   http://www.worldcat.org/title/day-the-universe-changed/oclc/...

   Finally, Reddit's /r/askhistorians has an excellent set of recommendations:

   https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/books

   This is probably a nonstandard list, but it's a set I'm finding particularly useful in filling in what was missing from my own earlier understanding.

   With a general outline, I find I'm diving into specific areas and aspects of history. Less the politics and big events, more the philosophy, technology, energy, and informational aspects. There's some particularly good specific research on times, places, and periods being written. And some amazing online resources, ranging from primary materials (the Internet Archive and Hathi Trust have scans of original texts, Project Gutenberg has those converted to print, Wikisource as well), to compilations -- the History of Information and Basics of Philosophy both strike me as quietly amazing.

   http://historyofinformation.com

   http://philosophybasics.com

   Show morethread