In the 1920s, H.G. Wells's "Outline of History" was everywhere. The celebrated author of "The Time Machine" had produced a sweeping secular narrative of human civilization that was rapidly becoming the standard popular history for millions of English-speaking readers. But one prominent Catholic writer found it deeply dangerous. Hilaire Belloc, the prolific Anglo-French essayist and polemicist, saw Wells's bestselling work not merely as bad history but as anti-Catholic propaganda dressed up as objective scholarship. This companion volume is Belloc's meticulous, often furious point-by-point refutation: he dissects Wells's treatment of creation, the rise of Christianity, the medieval period, and the Reformation, arguing that the secular historian systematically distorts the record to marginalize the Church's central role in Western civilization. Written with Belloc's trademark sharpness and conviction, the book aims to arm Catholic readers with the historical knowledge necessary to resist what Belloc viewed as a corrosive secular worldview. It remains a remarkable artifact of early twentieth-century religious intellectual life, capturing a moment when Catholic thinkers felt compelled to mount vigorous defenses against the rising tide of secular popular education.
