The Project Gutenberg EBook of The War in the Air, by Herbert George Wells

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Title: The War in the Air

Author: Herbert George Wells

Posting Date: August 10, 2008 [EBook #780]
Release Date: January, 1997
Last Updated: June 2, 2010

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WAR IN THE AIR ***

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THE WAR IN THE AIR

By H. G. Wells

CONTENTS

I. OF PROGRESS AND THE SMALLWAYS FAMILY
II. HOW BERT SMALLWAYS GOT INTO DIFFICULTIES
III. THE BALLOON
IV. THE GERMAN AIR-FLEET
V. THE BATTLE OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC
VI. HOW WAR CAME TO NEW YORK
VII. THE "VATERLAND" IS DISABLED
VIII. A WORLD AT WAR
IX. ON GOAT ISLAND
X. THE WORLD UNDER THE WAR
XI. THE GREAT COLLAPSE
THE EPILOGUE

PREFACE TO REPRINT EDITION

The reader should grasp clearly the date at which this book was written.
It was done in 1907: it appeared in various magazines as a serial in
1908 and it was published in the Fall of that year. At that time the
aeroplane was, for most people, merely a rumour and the "Sausage" held
the air. The contemporary reader has all the advantage of ten years'
experience since this story was imagined. He can correct his author at a
dozen points and estimate the value of these warnings by the standard
of a decade of realities. The book is weak on anti-aircraft guns, for
example, and still more negligent of submarines. Much, no doubt, will
strike the reader as quaint and limited but upon much the writer may not
unreasonably plume himself. The interpretation of the German spirit
must have read as a caricature in 1908. Was it a caricature? Prince
Karl seemed a fantasy then. Reality has since copied Prince Carl with
an astonishing faithfulness. Is it too much to hope that some democratic
"Bert" may not ultimately get even with his Highness? Our author tells
us in this book, as he has told us in others, more especially in The
World Set Free, and as he has been telling us this year in his War
and the Future, that if mankind goes on with war, the smash-up of
civilization is inevitable. It