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A review by rymdkejsaren
The Lessons of History by Ariel Durant, Will Durant
3.0
I picked this up on a whim based on a recommendation, I don't recall from whom, and began reading. After a dozen or so pages I turned to the front and looked at the publishing date. Ah. 1968. That explains a lot.
There are certainly some interesting ideas and insights in this book. While I am sure many of them were profound and no doubt controversial at the time of publishing, many passages have not aged well. There is deep-seated misogyny, homophobia, intellectual elitism, and other problems that are difficult to ignore. While many of its main points are made as open questions, it is difficult to take seriously someone who genuinely asks if perhaps the quality of art has degraded so because we no longer have an aristocracy, who apparently were better equipped to judge the quality of art better than say, artists.
But some important points are made, particularly about the cyclical nature of history. Some of the statements of the chapters about economy and socialism aptly describe the state of some of our failing democracies of today.
I think this book is more of a curiosity than required reading. I think there are a lot of books out there that give a much more interesting perspective of history, like Guns, Germs, & Steel or The Better Angels of our Nature.
There are certainly some interesting ideas and insights in this book. While I am sure many of them were profound and no doubt controversial at the time of publishing, many passages have not aged well. There is deep-seated misogyny, homophobia, intellectual elitism, and other problems that are difficult to ignore. While many of its main points are made as open questions, it is difficult to take seriously someone who genuinely asks if perhaps the quality of art has degraded so because we no longer have an aristocracy, who apparently were better equipped to judge the quality of art better than say, artists.
But some important points are made, particularly about the cyclical nature of history. Some of the statements of the chapters about economy and socialism aptly describe the state of some of our failing democracies of today.
I think this book is more of a curiosity than required reading. I think there are a lot of books out there that give a much more interesting perspective of history, like Guns, Germs, & Steel or The Better Angels of our Nature.