pickA fountain of knowledge, thousands of years' worth of lessons distilled elegantly in a single short book. It does, however, expect the reader to have a fundamental familiarity with particular historical events and characters. Also, the authors get extra points for adding a touch of sarcasm to the narrative. Definitely a must read!
pickThis was a freebie on audible this month. I highly reccomend it, the author is unapologetic and clear on his view of the lessons from history. I found some similarities with Sapiens by Yuval, but this one is a bit more phylosofical. The audiobook includes an interview with the couple. It's a delight to hear the experience that comes with an old age filled with research and personal contemplation.
pickIf you don't have the time for the complete Story of Civilization series.
pickWhen visiting my dad's house in Arizona I always pull something off the right-wing bookshelf. This was written in 1968 and was a short, fun read! And it wasn't *really* right wing. Authors Will and Ariel Durant wrote a monumental series of ten books called The Story of Civilization. This book is actually a distilling down of what was in the ten volumes, in a 100 page book! Reading this in 2020 I realized that human nature never changes.
pickI really enjoyed this book and found it surprisingly open for a book written in 1968.
Ideally parentage should be a privilege of health, not a by-product of sexual agitation.
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.
The historian always oversimplifies, and hastily selects a manageable minority of facts and faces out of a crowd of souls and events whose multitudinous complexity he can never quite embrace or comprehend.
It has been the one song of those who thirst after absolute power that the interest of the state requires that its affairs should be conducted in secret... But the more such arguments disguise themselves under the mask of public welfare, the more oppressive is the slavery to which they will lead... Better that right counsels be known to enemies than that the evil secrets of tyrants should be concealed from the citizens...
it was fear that first made the gods--fear of hidden forces in the earth, rivers, oceans, trees, winds, and sky. Religion became the propitiatory worship of these forces through offerings, sacrifice, incantation, and prayer.
Generally religion and puritanism prevail in periods when the laws are feeble and morals must bear the burden of maintaining social order; skepticism and paganism (other factors being equal) progress as the rising power of law and government permits the decline of the church, the family, and morality without basically endangering the stability of the state.
The present is the past rolled up for action, and the past is the present unrolled for understanding.
Normally and generally men are judged by their ability to produce—except in war, when they are ranked according to their ability to destroy.
In the last 3,421 years of recorded history only 268 have seen no war.
The fear of capitalism has compelled socialism to widen freedom, and the fear of socialism has compelled capitalism to increase equality. East is West and West is East, and soon the twain will meet.
You can‘t fool all the people all the time, but you can fool enough of them to rule a large country.
History reports that the men who can manage men manage the men who can manage only things, and the men who can manage money manage all.
In progressive societies the concentration[of wealth] may reach a point where the strength of number in the many poor rivals the strength of ability in the few rich; then the unstable equilibrium generates a critical situation, which history has diversely met by legislation redistributing wealth or by revolution distributing poverty.
The Lessons of History | 
