The Project Gutenberg EBook of Anticipations, by Herbert George Wells

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Title: Anticipations
Of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon
Human life and Thought

Author: Herbert George Wells

Release Date: September 9, 2006 [EBook #19229]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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ANTICIPATIONS

OF THE

REACTION OF MECHANICAL AND SCIENTIFIC

PROGRESS UPON HUMAN LIFE

AND THOUGHT

BY

H. G. WELLS

AUTHOR OF

"LOVE AND MR. LEWISHAM," "THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU,"
AND "TALES OF SPACE AND TIME."

_SECOND EDITION_

LONDON: CHAPMAN & HALL, LD.

1902

CONTENTS

I. LOCOMOTION IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 1
II. THE PROBABLE DIFFUSION OF GREAT CITIES 33
III. DEVELOPING SOCIAL ELEMENTS 66
IV. CERTAIN SOCIAL REACTIONS 103
V. THE LIFE-HISTORY OF DEMOCRACY 143
VI. WAR IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 176
VII. THE CONFLICT OF LANGUAGES 215
VIII. THE LARGER SYNTHESIS 245
IX. FAITH, MORALS, AND PUBLIC POLICY IN THE
TWENTIETH CENTURY 279

ANTICIPATIONS

I

LOCOMOTION IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

It is proposed in this book to present in as orderly an arrangement as
the necessarily diffused nature of the subject admits, certain
speculations about the trend of present forces, speculations which,
taken all together, will build up an imperfect and very hypothetical,
but sincerely intended forecast of the way things will probably go in
this new century.[1] Necessarily diffidence will be one of the graces of
the performance. Hitherto such forecasts have been presented almost
invariably in the form of fiction, and commonly the provocation of the
satirical opportunity has been too much for the writer;[2] the
narrative form becomes more and more of a nuisance as the speculative
inductions become sincerer, and here it will be abandoned altogether