The World Set Free

Decades before the Manhattan Project, H. G. Wells imagined a war fought with atomic bombs, crude devices that keep burning and leave the ground poisoned for years. The story tracks the discovery of atomic energy, a catastrophic global conflict he places in the 1950s, and the wreckage that forces survivors to choose between endless barbarism and a united world government. Wells drew on the real physics of his day and even coined the phrase ‘atomic bomb.’ First published in 1914, the book is part prophecy and part argument, more interested in ideas about power and politics than in individual characters. Its warning would land with unsettling accuracy three decades later. This free PDF and EPUB edition preserves the complete text.