The Lessons Of History

The Lessons Of History

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The book provides a summary of periods and trends in history they had noted upon completion of the 10th volume of their momentous eleven-volume The Story of Civilization. Will Durant stated that he and Ariel "made note of events and comments that might illuminate present affairs, future probabilities, the nature of man, and the conduct of states."[1]

Thus, the book presents an overview of the themes and lessons observed from 5,000 years of human history, examined from 12 perspectives: geography, biology, race, character, morals, religion, economics, socialism, government, war, growth and decay, and progress.

This is my book summary of The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant. My notes are informal and often contain quotes from the book as well as my own thoughts. This summary includes key lessons and important passages from the book.

Throughout American history, whenever there has been a crisis the response has been a deprivation of rights. Today, the United States is in the midst of the worst health crisis in over a century. As of this writing, over 500,000 people have died.11. Johns Hopkins U. & Med. Coronavirus Resource Ctr., [ -Y6KS] (last visited Mar. 24, 2021). jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2986_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2986_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], }); The pandemic reveals underlying institutional and infrastructural problems in society. We argue, based on history, there is every reason to fear that the pandemic could be used as justification for a massive deprivation of rights and abuses.

Having completed the 10th volume of The Story of Civilization (with The Age of Napoleon yet to come), Will and Ariel Durant took time to reflect in The Lessons of History. It is a short book, less than 100 pages, in which they comment on lessons they have learned from history as it pertains to the earth, biology, race, character, morals, religion, economics, government, and war.

Reading The Lessons, one must first keep in mind that the Durants are atheists. An atheist will draw different lessons than a devout Moslem, orthodox Christian, or Talmudic Jew from the same events. Each sees the events through a different filter. Unlike many of our contemporary atheists, who seem oblivious to the monumental personal and societal consequences of the decision not to believe, the Durants understand and frequently cite the cost of disbelief. Second, they are cultivated liberals of the sort common in the United States up through the end of the 1980s. Their atheism and liberalism are apparent in The Story but not intrusive. In The Lessons, their filters are more active. They should be read with this perspective in mind. With this clarification, I will briefly review some of the chapters and then make some concluding remarks.

Two renowned investment advisors and authors of the best seller The Great Reckoning bring to light both currents of disaster and the potential for prosperity and renewal in the face of radical changes in human history as we move into the next century. The Sovereign Individual details strategies necessary for adapting financially to the next phase of Western civilization.

Civilization owes Will and Ariel Durant a debt of gratitude for dedicating their lives to the study and understanding of history. It could be said that The Lessons of History (Amazon) is the definitive summary of their 50+ years of expertise.

Ukrainian artists are mining the history of their cultural resistance to Joseph Stalin in the late 1920s and 1930s as they resist Russian imperialism once more. It is a stark reminder that global order is not forged by political leaders from on high. The 1920s, more than any previous decade, was characterized by waves of social mobilization around international questions relating to war and peace across the political spectrum. Many of the nongovernmental organizations currently supporting displaced Ukrainian civilians grew out of local, grass-roots activism. Recent events signal a strong shift akin to that of the 1920s, with claims for justice emerging across many parts of the world, providing an opportunity to reengage public interest in international organizations (not just activism). There is now a new generation of self-starting aid entrepreneurs, who have found an authoritative voice and can help set the framework and determine the language for broader conversations about reforms needed to produce better solutions to our shared challenges.

Crucially, the war in Ukraine has underscored the importance of regional institutions to global governance. Decades-old, apparently moribund, questions about how NATO, the European Union, and the UN Security Council and General Assembly should relate to one another in regard to human security are now alive and kicking. If regional governance is key, the global implications of new regional institutions, such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, are far from clear. Global governance, as the history of the United Nations itself shows, is strongly path-dependent. If this presents a new reform agenda and possibility for action, the challenges of the return of geopolitics, if sometimes frightening, should be familiar. While many commentators dwell on the bitter lessons of the 1930s and the early Cold War years, in reality power politics shaped and limited the prospects of global governance for the entire 20th century. Recognizing this presents an opportunity because it is a reminder that arguments for, or against, international cooperation and organization are rival attempts to find solutions to common dilemmas. The war in Ukraine makes it clear that for all state leaders the realm of international relations is where they have the least control. Paradoxically, although war signals the failure of dialogue, it is also a lesson in the importance of effective institutionalized collaboration and diplomacy.

With the armed forces of the People's Republic of China (PLA) celebrating its 75th anniversary on August 1, 2002, it only seemed appropriate and timely to take stock of the world's largest military. The PLA has officially been in existence for three-quarters of a century, and its history is one filled with turmoil and warfare. One weekend in the September 2002, a group of PLA specialists gathered at Carlisle Barracks, the home of the U.S. Army War College, to assess what lessons China's soldiers had drawn from the history of their own armed forces. This volume constitutes the final product of months of extensive research by the individual authors and hours of intense discussion at the 3-day conference by approximately 50 participants. The conference was sponsored jointly by the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and the U.S. Army War College.

Will Durant was one of the most celebrated historians in American history, having published dozens of books on a great variety of historic topics in his lifetime, some of them together with his wife Ariel.

A little knowledge of history stresses the variability of moral codes, and concludes that they are negligible because they differ in time and place, and sometimes contradict each other. A larger knowledge stresses the universality of moral codes, and concludes to their necessity.

Our knowledge of any past event is always incomplete, probably inaccurate, beclouded by ambivalent evidence and biased historians, and perhaps distorted by our own patriotic or religious partisanship. Most history is guessing, and the rest is prejudice.

Human nature drives everyone. Means and instrumentalities change; motives and ends remain the same. Nothing is clearer in history than the adoption by successful rebels of the methods they condemned in the forces they disposed.

There is no significant example in history, before our time, of a society successfully maintaining moral life without the aid of religion. France, the United States, and some other nations have divorced their governments from all churches, but they have had the help of religion in keeping social order.

All of the history of humankind is a short chapter in the history of biology. And all of biology is a short chapter in the history of the planet. And the planet is a short chapter in the history of the universe.

What might we learn by examining & debating the lessons of over 2,500 years of history in which human beings have sought to avert, instigate, wage, win & end wars? The course is designed with 1 primary objective in mind: to take the long history of war & peace and weave it together in a way that fundamentally challenges & changes our understanding of the human condition-as well as our approach to leadership, strategy, negotiation and policy. More specifically, we will:

The course will feature cases, guests, lots of incredible history, and an emphasis on analysis, debate and reflection. This course meets weekly and will be offered in Q1Q2 (Fall). Students will choose either a final paper or a final project.

Human taeniasis as well as porcine and human cysticercosis--caused by the pork tapeworm Taenia solium--are ancient diseases. The fact that pigs were considered impure in the ancient Greece and that the Koran prohibited the consumption of pork, were likely related to the knowledge that cysticercosis may affect swine. Evidence suggests that human cysticercosis was also present in the ancient Egypt and Rome. During the Renaissance, the causative agent was properly identified and human cases were recognized. Confirmation that both taeniasis and cysticercosis were caused by the same parasite was provided during the 19th Century by German pathologists. During the 20th Century, bouts of human cysticercosis in non-endemic regions left us valuable lessons on the mechanisms of disease acquisition and spread. These included a large series of neurocysticercosis cases in the United Kingdom that occurred after the return of troops stationed in India (which demonstrated that symptoms may occur years after infection), the epidemic of cysticercosis-related epilepsy in the Ekari people of Papua New Guinea occurring after the gift of pigs with cysticercosis received from Indonesia (demonstrating the fast establishment of endemic transmission and the impact of cysticercosis in epilepsy frequency), and the occurrence of neurocysticercosis among members of an Orthodox Jewish community of New York City, related to Latin American Taenia carriers working in their houses (highlighting the fact that cysticercosis transmission do not require the presence of infected pigs). These lessons of history have significantly contributed to our current knowledge on this disease. 781b155fdc