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A review by girlnouns
The Lessons of History by Will Durant
1.0
This book is straight doo doo, garbage, dog shit. It’s not a history book, but Will and Ariel Durant’s own opinions about people’s motivations with stories attached. The history is so brief, so shallowly covered, and presented in a straightforward and one-dimensional way. Sure covering world history and drawing overarching themes is hard to do, but history is nuanced and multifaceted.
Heaven and utopia are buckets in a well: when one goes down the other goes up; when religion declines Communism grows
Yup, the fall of religion is the one thing that produces communism.
This book is so euro-centric in every possible way. From solely focusing on European/United-States American stories, praising Cathlocis/religion at every possible turn, to furiously jerking off to Greek/Roman art. His critiques and conclusions of modern/post-modern art are so laughable
“The producers of such nonsense are appealing not to the general public... but to gullible middle-class purchasers who are hypnotized by auctioneers and are thrilled by the new, however deformed. Democracy is responsible for this collapse only in the sense that it has not been able to develop standards and tastes to replace those with which aristocracies once kept the imagination and individualism of artists within the bounds of ineligible communication, the illumination of life, and the harmony of parts in a logical sequence and a coherent whole.”
Furthermore, non-white power structures/culture are measured through their Euro-centric/white/capitalist/racist/conservative views. My ability to critique his capitalist takes is lacking, but I can point out the ableist, racist, homophobic, eugenicist takes.
“subject to our physical and psychological heredity, and to the customs and traditions of our group; lf diversely endowed in health and strength, in mental capacity and quality of character... Inequality is not only natural inborn, it grows with the complexity of civilization.”
“we are grateful for the added years that medical science gives us if they are not a burdensome prolongation of illness, disability, and gloom”
“ ... meanwhile medicine, sanitation, and charity nullify selection by keeping the unfit alive to multiple their like...”
“the degeneration of a civilization is what the word itself indicates - falling away from the genus, stock, or race... Usually, this comes through intermarriage of the vigorous race with those whom it has conquered. Hence the superiority of the whites in the United States and Canada (who did not intermarry with the Indians) to the whites in Latin America (Who did).
“Educated has spread, but intelligence is perpetually retarded by the fertility of the simple.”
“Is it not wiser to resist at once, to carry the war to the enemy, to fight on foreign soil, to sacrifice, if it need be a, a hundred thousand American lives and perhaps a million noncombatants, but to leave America free to live its own life in security and freedom?... The philosopher answers: yes....”
The inaccuracies of the “history” Durant’s tell are ridiculous.
The Roman catholic Church labored to reduce slavery, family feuds, and national strife, to extend the intervals of truce and peace...
No, the Roman Catholic Church enforced and justified genocide, slavery, and colonization, while starting wars for the sake of religion.
“But in most instances the effects achieved by the revolution would apparently have come without it through gradual compulsion of economic developments,”
Revolutions aren’t inevitable, radical change only comes through radical action. History and what happens are not predetermined but come from the actions of large amounts of people.
“The only real revolution is in the enlightenment of the mind and the improvement of character, the only real emancipation is individual, and the only real revolutionists are philosophers and saints.”
Sigh, no? Just incorrect on all fronts.
“Anglo-Saxon law, which from Magna Carta onward, had defended the citizens against the state...”
I can think of many moments in history where American laws and laws based on the Magna Carta/British Common law failed to protect the people from the state.
It also is funny how the Durant’s disagree with opposite opinions :
In the military interpretation of history war is the final arbiter, and is accepted as natural and necessary by all but cowards and simpletons.”
“... and that the idolizing of savages, like many other young moods, is an inpatient expression of adolescent maladaptation, of conscious ability not yet matured and comfortably placed.”
“None but a child will complain that our teachers have not yet eradicated the errors and superstitions of ten thousand years.”
“Even when repressed, inequality grows; only the man who is below the average in economic ability desires equality; those who are conscious of superior ability desire freedom and in the end superior ability has its way”
Yup, if you disagree or challenge any of their ideas you are a child or stupid, no valid other critiques can be made.
Reading critically, you have to challenge the obvious racist and laughable predictions/analysis by the Durants. It’s funny how they say that the future is not defined, but fall into the fatalist view of the rise and the fall and the inevitably of everything to come. The book is straight-up eugenics and white supremacist propaganda that likes to hide everything in whimsical and contradicting writing while also explicitly stating it.
Perhaps the only thing that I enjoyed is how the Durant’s comically pat themself on the back for studying history :
“To those of us who study history not merely as a warning reminder of man’s follies and crimes, but also as an encouraging remembrance of generative souls, the past ceases to be a depressing chamber of horrors; it becomes a celestial city, a spacious country of the mind, wherein a thousand saints, statesman, inventors, scientist, sports, artists, musicians, lovers and philosophers still live and speak, teach and carve and sing.
Heaven and utopia are buckets in a well: when one goes down the other goes up; when religion declines Communism grows
Yup, the fall of religion is the one thing that produces communism.
This book is so euro-centric in every possible way. From solely focusing on European/United-States American stories, praising Cathlocis/religion at every possible turn, to furiously jerking off to Greek/Roman art. His critiques and conclusions of modern/post-modern art are so laughable
“The producers of such nonsense are appealing not to the general public... but to gullible middle-class purchasers who are hypnotized by auctioneers and are thrilled by the new, however deformed. Democracy is responsible for this collapse only in the sense that it has not been able to develop standards and tastes to replace those with which aristocracies once kept the imagination and individualism of artists within the bounds of ineligible communication, the illumination of life, and the harmony of parts in a logical sequence and a coherent whole.”
Furthermore, non-white power structures/culture are measured through their Euro-centric/white/capitalist/racist/conservative views. My ability to critique his capitalist takes is lacking, but I can point out the ableist, racist, homophobic, eugenicist takes.
“subject to our physical and psychological heredity, and to the customs and traditions of our group; lf diversely endowed in health and strength, in mental capacity and quality of character... Inequality is not only natural inborn, it grows with the complexity of civilization.”
“we are grateful for the added years that medical science gives us if they are not a burdensome prolongation of illness, disability, and gloom”
“ ... meanwhile medicine, sanitation, and charity nullify selection by keeping the unfit alive to multiple their like...”
“the degeneration of a civilization is what the word itself indicates - falling away from the genus, stock, or race... Usually, this comes through intermarriage of the vigorous race with those whom it has conquered. Hence the superiority of the whites in the United States and Canada (who did not intermarry with the Indians) to the whites in Latin America (Who did).
“Educated has spread, but intelligence is perpetually retarded by the fertility of the simple.”
“Is it not wiser to resist at once, to carry the war to the enemy, to fight on foreign soil, to sacrifice, if it need be a, a hundred thousand American lives and perhaps a million noncombatants, but to leave America free to live its own life in security and freedom?... The philosopher answers: yes....”
The inaccuracies of the “history” Durant’s tell are ridiculous.
The Roman catholic Church labored to reduce slavery, family feuds, and national strife, to extend the intervals of truce and peace...
No, the Roman Catholic Church enforced and justified genocide, slavery, and colonization, while starting wars for the sake of religion.
“But in most instances the effects achieved by the revolution would apparently have come without it through gradual compulsion of economic developments,”
Revolutions aren’t inevitable, radical change only comes through radical action. History and what happens are not predetermined but come from the actions of large amounts of people.
“The only real revolution is in the enlightenment of the mind and the improvement of character, the only real emancipation is individual, and the only real revolutionists are philosophers and saints.”
Sigh, no? Just incorrect on all fronts.
“Anglo-Saxon law, which from Magna Carta onward, had defended the citizens against the state...”
I can think of many moments in history where American laws and laws based on the Magna Carta/British Common law failed to protect the people from the state.
It also is funny how the Durant’s disagree with opposite opinions :
In the military interpretation of history war is the final arbiter, and is accepted as natural and necessary by all but cowards and simpletons.”
“... and that the idolizing of savages, like many other young moods, is an inpatient expression of adolescent maladaptation, of conscious ability not yet matured and comfortably placed.”
“None but a child will complain that our teachers have not yet eradicated the errors and superstitions of ten thousand years.”
“Even when repressed, inequality grows; only the man who is below the average in economic ability desires equality; those who are conscious of superior ability desire freedom and in the end superior ability has its way”
Yup, if you disagree or challenge any of their ideas you are a child or stupid, no valid other critiques can be made.
Reading critically, you have to challenge the obvious racist and laughable predictions/analysis by the Durants. It’s funny how they say that the future is not defined, but fall into the fatalist view of the rise and the fall and the inevitably of everything to come. The book is straight-up eugenics and white supremacist propaganda that likes to hide everything in whimsical and contradicting writing while also explicitly stating it.
Perhaps the only thing that I enjoyed is how the Durant’s comically pat themself on the back for studying history :
“To those of us who study history not merely as a warning reminder of man’s follies and crimes, but also as an encouraging remembrance of generative souls, the past ceases to be a depressing chamber of horrors; it becomes a celestial city, a spacious country of the mind, wherein a thousand saints, statesman, inventors, scientist, sports, artists, musicians, lovers and philosophers still live and speak, teach and carve and sing.