H. G. Wells 
The World Set Free 

The World Set Free is a novel written in 1913 and published in 1914 by H. G. Wells. The book is based on a prediction of nuclear weapons of a more destructive and uncontrollable sort than the world has yet seen. A frequent theme of Wells’s work, as in his 1901 nonfiction book Anticipations, was the history of humans’ mastery of power and energy through technological advance, seen as a determinant of human progress. The novel begins: ‘The history of mankind is the history of the attainment of external power. Man is the tool-using, fire-making animal. . . Always down a lengthening record, save for a set-back ever and again, he is doing more.’ The novel is dedicated ‘To Frederick Soddy’s Interpretation of Radium, ‘ a volume published in 1909.