Africa Looms, 1921-22
Africa Looming
Wells, Herbert George (1866-1946). A Short History of the World. New York: Macmillan, 1922.
It would seem that the acceptance of human antiquity had been thoroughly accomplished when it was taken for granted in H.G. Wells’ popular history of the world. After chapters on “The Age of Reptiles” and “The Age of Mammals,” we find one on “Monkeys, Apes, and Sub-men,” followed by “The Neanderthaler and the Rhodesian Man,” and finally “True Men.” Wells thought that Rhodesian Man, discovered just the previous year (see item 39), came after Neanderthal, rather than before. But he did recognize that the finding of this fossil in Africa had opened up a new horizon in the quest for human ancestors. Africa would indeed provide the next frontier in the search for the cradle of humankind.