A Short History of the World(世界简史)

H. G. Wells
This is a public domain book converted by anonymous volunteers and you may find it for free on the web.This work is respectfully inscribed by the author. I. THE WORLD IN SPACE THE story of our world is a story that is still very imperfectly known. A couple of hundred years ago men possessed the history of little more than the last three thousand years. What happened before that time was a matter of legend and speculation. Over a large part of the civilized world it was believed and taught that the world had been created suddenly in 4004 B.C., though authorities differed as to whether this had occurred in the spring or autumn of that year. This fantastically precise misconception was based upon a too literal interpretation of the Hebrew Bible, and upon rather arbitrary theological ass…