The Lessons of History by Will Durant (PDF)

Description

A concise survey of the culture and civilization of mankind, The Lessons of History is the result of a lifetime of research from Pulitzer Prize–winning historians Will and Ariel Durant.With their accessible compendium of philosophy and social progress, the Durants take us on a journey through history, exploring the possibilities and limitations of humanity over time. Juxtaposing the great lives, ideas, and accomplishments with cycles of war and conquest, the Durants reveal the towering themes of history and give meaning to our own.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This book will help you see clearly. Great men like Ray Dalio and General Mattis have claimed this is one of their favorite books. Highly recommend.

⭐My son’s high school history teacher required the book as summer reading. After he read it, Idecided to do so. Such a unique and dynamic way to view history. Extremely refreshing!

⭐This gives good historical and some bad. We have progress in technology compared to the beginning. We’re also allowing moral value to decline

⭐This book clarifies both the definition and role of history. History is just the past rolled up to the present moment. History is where progress of the future is held. Without history and its culmination of tangible lessons, the humans of today would become no less barbaric as their distant ancestors before recorded history. Passing on our human heritage to future generations is the epitome of progress.

⭐”The Lessons of History” is a collection of short essays based on Will and Ariel Durant’s acclaimed eleven volume “The Story of Civilization”. It begins with a great disclaimer: “Only a fool would try to compress a hundred centuries into a hundred pages of hazardous conclusions. We proceed.”And they succeed! The book packs a wealth of insights into a hundred pages. The authors discuss, in turn, the forces that have shaped history. The forces considered include natural (geography, biology), human behavior (character, morality), and human constructs (religion, economic systems, and government). The last essay considers the question “Is progress real?”.The essay on economics argues that wealth inequality is a natural and inevitable consequence of the “concentration of ability” within a minority of a society, and this has occurred regularly throughout history. The authors state: “The relative equality of Americans before 1776 has been overwhelmed by a thousand forms of physical, mental, and economic differentiation, so that the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest is now greater than at any time since Imperial plutocratic Rome.”This leads into the essay on socialism, which strives to counteract the forces that drive wealth inequality. The authors survey “socialist experiments” in ancient Sumeria, Egypt, Rome, China, and South America – all centuries before the industrial revolution. It was fascinating to read this history which contains a mixture of failures and successes. The authors argue that the trend is towards a synthesis of capitalism and socialism (rather than one system winning outright).The next essay discusses the various forms of government and descibes the special circumstances that enabled democracy to take root and flourish in the American colonies. The authors argue that many of the favorable conditions that were present in the years following the American Revolution have disappeared. The essay ends with the haunting warning: “If race or class war divides us into hostile camps, changing political argument into blind hate, one side or other may overturn the hustings with the rule of the sword. If our economy of freedom fails to distribute wealth as ably as it has created it, the road to dictatorship will be open to any man who can persuasively promise security to all; and a martial government, under whatever charming phrases, will engulf the democratic world.”Hopefully this review has provided a flavor for how the authors have distilled the insights they have gained from years of study. It should not come as a surprise that the lessons gleaned from several thousand years of recorded history continue to ring true today.This is a book that I wish I’d read in high school or perhaps Freshman year of college. It’s a wonderfully written study of how we got to where we are today.

⭐Enjoyed reading Lessons from History by Will and Ariel Durant on my Kindle. It’s a concise manual on how history repeats itself across time and space. How civilizations are born, grow and eventually, die but not without leaving traces in other civilizations. How state taxes incentivize the lazy and the incompetent. How the concept of liberal democracy stands against natural law. How fear of capitalism has compelled socialism to widen freedom and the fear of socialism has compelled capitalism to increase equality across nations and over eons. How analytical thought dissolves religions that buttress moral codes. How individuals (geniuses) can sometimes change history determined by circumstances (climate, geography, institutions). How aristocracy was a nursery of statesmanship – “respository and vehicle of culture, manners, standards and tastes”.The progression from monarchy to aristocracy to democracy to dictatorship is inevitable. Indeed, the democracy of Athens was nothing but a chaos of class violence, cultural decadence and moral degeneration. We see the last phase active to various degrees in US, India, and China already. The book is poetic in its prose. My favorite quotes from the book – “The selective survival of creative minds is the most real and beneficent of immortalities”. “Freedoms of democracy may one by one succumb to the discipline of arms and strife.” “Each civilization is an organism naturally and mysteriously endowed with the power of development and the fatality of death.” “If a man is fortunate, he will,before he dies, gather up as much as he can of his civilized heritage and transmit it to his children.”Overall, I think this book is a treasure as we try and make sense of the world today. The only points I disagreed was when the authors are too fearful of the accumulation of weaponry. Rationalism would argue that deterrence by arms as a tool for peace is unquestionable. Another was that violence has increased because of science (and renaissance was a more peaceful time). Steven Pinker (“The Better Angels of Our Nature”) would be horrified.

⭐After looking at the reviews here and elsewhere, I had high expectations for this book. I’d not long read Sapiens, and was gripped by the scope of that, and was expecting some insights from this too. Now bearing in mind its age, I was expecting it to have aged, but even in this context, this book failed to deliver.The frankly bizarre discussions of race really remind you that the author was born in the 19th century, and reading this in 2020 makes you more than a little uncomfortable. I was misled by the publication date, 2012, which seems like more of a reissue of some very old material, little of which has aged particularly well, as this book’s information should really show the actual publication date of 1968, for if I saw the book was this old, I would have avoided it. For its time, when it was published, this may have had relevance and insight, but in the 21st century there is very little here, especially in its 120 or so pages, that have no been covered far better and more in-depth by other authors and historians. This is the greatest disappointment of a non-fiction book I’ve ever had, which is a shame as I really wanted to enjoy it.Ultimately, while this book attempts to provide real insight in just 128 pages, it just fails to deliver. In addition to the age, this book ends up as a Western-centric, borderline white supremacist view of the world, with no real insights into world history, human nature, or civilizations, it’s the kind of book you’d expect from a religious missionary with the white man’s burden out to convert some ‘savages’. This book has almost confirmed for me that it is very difficult to both stay relevant over 50 years after publication and to provide genuine insight with such ambitious scope over a mere 128 pages. As a historical artifact, this is a fascinating piece of work. As the work of an intellectual, this sadly doesn’t cut the mustard by 21st century standards.If you are looking for more up to date authors with genuine historical insight, you are better off looking nearer to the 21st century, and at books over 128 pages in length, I simply don’t think its possible to achieve genuine insights on the history of the planet and of human beings without reading less ambitious, and more focused books. I’d recommend Pinker’s Enlightenment Now & Better Angels of Our Nature, Jared Diamond, Bill Bryson, Yuval Noah Harari, Paul Kennedy’s Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, Ian Morris, Lewis Dartnell, Peter Frankopan, Niall Ferguson, Samuel Hungtington and John Darwin’s After Tamerlane.

⭐Got this as it was on Tai Lopez’s reading list as well as Warren Buffets and thought it must be something fairly goodI have to say it had a very detached but still interesting perspective on various aspects of humanity. I wouldn’t say it is full of insights but it logically looks at various aspects and comes to some very…particular conclusions on topics such as society, war and religion. I can’t say I fully agree with every point, there are some which I understand their views and whilst I disagree it was a good book at inspiring thought on some of the topics and how they came to their conclusions.Definitely worth a read for how cheap it is.Isn’t too long so fairly quick to readThought-provoking on some topics

⭐There is so much to learn from history. And much more than is described in this book. However this is a lovely, concise yet very rich book that offers insights from a brilliant point of view. It’s is a curiosity in my vast collection of history books. There aren’t that many books where so much substance is packed in such a small amount of pages. The 120-page book essentially deals with a selection principles and commonalities that bind human societies even though there are that separated by thousands of years. The thing, according to the authors, is that common human passions and desires drive comparable motivations, behaviour and societal change. All is based on the Durant’s decades-long study of and publications on historic topics. It’s simply a distillation of their academic work, brought back to a few essential points. None of the chapters cover more than few pages, yet the book covers the entirety of human history.They explain how in their view historic events are driven by several factors those being biology, race, morals, religion, economics, government, war, progress and decline. To support their conclusions they will present examples. Now, a couple of statements and findings are deeply coloured by the era when the authors were publishing (1967). So while most is timeless and universal, communism comes up a lot. But also homosexuality is cited as a symptom of the degeneration of societies as is modern art. And democracy is not presented as the panacea to all social strive.In fact, they also make a point that monarchy has been the more stable successful form of government and that democracy is hard to execute in practice. The impact of religious institutions on societies in general is being played down a,s according to the authors, they only have a role in moderating personal behaviour. Even if you disagree with some of these views / findings it is still super interesting to think about these issues and form your own conclusions.So I think this book is really brilliant and unique in its set up. The authors, even if a bit quaint from time to time, make a brave and bold effort to offer some general findings and insight, rather than proving insight on specific events. All statements and conclusions are supported by historic examples, so it makes an interesting read, even if you don’t agree with all conclusions.I think that a wide range of readers can benefit from the wisdom in this book although it helps if you have a good framework of history and social science as this will tie a good few things together.The book provides a readable, original look on history but some if it comes close to prose, some of the arguing deals with complex issues or topics that are only mentioned such as the Anabaptists (a topic that fascinates me tremendously). But if you give it a chance it should be well worth reading.

⭐An interesting collection of comparisons of different ages of history, showing patterns and common blockers. Succinct examples showing the risk of arrogance and complacency, unreigned capitalism and socialism. A short read it is, but it is an incredible example of what we can learn from history and an invitation to dive deeper into the areas that interest you.

⭐Concise and well reasoned essays that form a coherent short book on the recurring patterns of human behaviour throughouthistory. The book pre- dates woke culture and so fortunately isn’t written cautiously around simple truths. It has stood the test of time well and is a worthwhile read despite the short length.

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