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A review by jeffthink
The Lessons of History by Ariel Durant, Will Durant
4.0
“Most history is guessing, and the rest is prejudice.”
What a delightfully ambitious little book - trying to distill the major lessons of history into ~100 pages! Having been published in the 60's, it's pretty amazing how strong some of the lessons resonate ~50 years later. That said, some of the topics feel a bit colored by the time it was written (e.g. a lot of discussion about communism). I'd highly recommend it as a book that if nothing else, will really get you thinking about the geo-political forces at play around you. This quote in particular feels really important to consider given current times:
"Hence most governments have been oligarchies—ruled by a minority, chosen either by birth, as in aristocracies, or by a religious organization, as in theocracies, or by wealth, as in democracies."
What a delightfully ambitious little book - trying to distill the major lessons of history into ~100 pages! Having been published in the 60's, it's pretty amazing how strong some of the lessons resonate ~50 years later. That said, some of the topics feel a bit colored by the time it was written (e.g. a lot of discussion about communism). I'd highly recommend it as a book that if nothing else, will really get you thinking about the geo-political forces at play around you. This quote in particular feels really important to consider given current times:
"Hence most governments have been oligarchies—ruled by a minority, chosen either by birth, as in aristocracies, or by a religious organization, as in theocracies, or by wealth, as in democracies."