[1] The book was preceded by Wells's fuller 1919 work The Outline of History, and was intended "to meet the needs of the busy general reader, too driven to study the maps and time charts of that Outline in detail, who wishes to refresh and repair his faded or fragmentary conceptions of the great adventure of mankind.

[citation needed] The book summarises the scientific knowledge of the time regarding the history of Earth and life.

[6] The book ends with the outcome of the First World War, the Russian famine of 1921, and the League of Nations in 1922.

[7][8] In 1934 Albert Einstein recommended the book for the study of history as a means of interpreting progress in civilisation.

In two 1948 reports, Spanish censors gave a list of reasons for suppressing the book's publication.