Original artwork, not a still
The Outline of History · 1920
Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
Wells sets schooling and disaster as two runners on the same track, and the sentence reads as a deadline: knowledge and shared understanding have to outpace the weapons and hatreds the same age produces. It is a staple of education speeches and charity mission statements, usually trimmed to the first clause and attached to Wells without the book, which makes the post-war setting easy to miss.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for The Outline of HistoryShow the scene
The sentence comes from the closing chapters of H. G. Wells's The Outline of History, which appeared in twenty-four fortnightly illustrated instalments from 22 November 1919 and as a single volume in 1920. Wikiquote places it in Chapter 41, near the end of the book, where Wells turns from the past toward a hoped-for future. Wells wrote the Outline in the aftermath of the First World War, modelled on Diderot's Encyclopedie; it went on to sell more than two million copies.
Sources (2)
- Wikiquote: H. G. WellsThe Outline of History (1920) section, Ch. 41Reference checked
- Wikipedia: The Outline of HistoryLead paragraphReference checked
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