★★★★☆
Originally published in 1968, The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant is a concise work that distils insights from the authors’ massive, 11-volume opus The Story of Civilization. In just over 100 pages, the Durants present a sweeping survey of historical patterns, human nature, and the forces that shape civilizations, aiming to glean “lessons” from millennia of recorded events. Although the book is brief, it is rich in scope and philosophical reflection, covering topics like geography, biology, economics, government, and religion—all examined in the context of humanity’s recurring patterns of progress, decline, conflict, and renewal.
I have put a summary of detailed Kindle highlights below. Interestingly, Durant reaches the same conclusion as Professor David Deutsch on humanity’s greatest achievement which needs to continued to be propagated (for all of society’s benefit), which is knowledge (Durant classifies it as higher education for all) - nonetheless, the conclusion is Popperian and clear.
“Democracy is the most difficult of all forms of government, since it requires the widest spread of intelligence, and we forgot to make ourselves intelligent when we made ourselves sovereign.”
“Utopias of equality are biologically doomed, and the best that the amiable philosopher can hope for is an approximate equality of legal justice and educational opportunity.”
“It is good that new ideas should be heard, for the sake of the few that can be used; but it is also good that new ideas should be compelled to go through the mill of objection, opposition, and contumely; this is the trial heat which innovations must survive before being allowed to enter the human race.”
“War is one of the constants of history, and has not diminished with civilization or democracy. In the last 3,421 years of recorded history only 268 have seen no war.”
“So our finest contemporary achievement is our unprecedented expenditure of wealth and toil in the provision of higher education for all.”
Kindle Highlights