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An Englishman Looks at the World
An Englishman Looks at the World is a 1914 essay collection by H. G. Wells containing journalistic pieces written between 1909 and 1914. The book consists of twenty-six pieces ranging from five[1] to sixty-two pages[2] in length. An American edition was published the same year by Harper and Brothers under the title Social Forces in England and America. Wells organized the essays thematically, inserting a fanciful "synopsis" after the table of contents conveying his view that the book constituted an argument: "Blériot arrives and sets him thinking. (1) He flies, (2) and deduces certain consequences of cheap travel. (3) He considers the King, and speculates on the New Epoch; (4) he thinks Imperially, (5) and then, coming to details, about Labour, (6) Socialism, (7) and Modern Warfare. (8) He discourses on the Modern Novel, (9) and the Public Library; (10) criticises Chesterton, Belloc, (11) and Sir Thomas More, (12) and deals with the London Traffic Problem as a Socialist should. (13) He doubts the existence of Sociology, (14) discusses Divorce, (15) Schoolmasters, (16) Motherhood, (17) Doctors, (18) and Specialisation; (19) questions if there is a People, (20) and diagnoses the Political Disease of Our Times. (21) He then speculates upon the future of the American Population, (22) considers a possible set-back to civilisation, (23) the Ideal Citizen, (24) the still undeveloped possibilities of Science, (25), and—in the broadest spirit—the Human Adventure. (26)"[3] BackgroundThe journalistic production in An Englishman Looks at the World reflects Wells's turn from novel-writing to journalism, which began in the years before the outbreak of the Great War.[4] He was more and more frequently invited to write articles for popular periodicals like the Daily Mail.[5] Included in the collection are an account of "My First Flight,"[6] a long essay entitled "The Great State" that prefigured many of the themes of The Outline of History, and a philosophical essay entitled "The So-Called Science of Sociology," arguing that sociology would never be a science because "counting, classification, measurement, the whole fabric of mathematics, is subjective and deceitful, and . . . the uniqueness of individuals is the objective truth."[7] References
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