One summer night, a falling star crosses the sky, describing a line of flame high in the atmosphere and leaving a glowing greenish streak in its wake. Early next morning, a huge cylinder is found half-buried on Horsell Common, hot from its journey through space. Under the eyes of a curious crowd, the cylinder's end begins to unscrew itself - and the tentacular creature within emerges... Earth is being invaded by Mars. Against the human tide of panic...

H. G. Wells's passionate and influential manifesto never before available in the United States was first published in England in 1940 in response to World War II. The progressive ideas Wells set out were instrumental in the creation of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights, and the UK's Human Rights Act. In the face of a global miscarriage of justice, The Rights of Man made a clear statement of mankind's...