I first learned of the historians Will & Ariel Durant from a tweet by Elon Musk earlier this year when he recommended their book, “The Age of Napoleon,” apart of their, “The Story of Civilization,” multivolume series.
This tweet sparked my curiosity and interest, leading me to research their past work, and before jumping into the 10,000+ page, 11 volume series, I wanted to read a more condensed version of their research, which led me to, “The Lessons of History.”
“The Lessons of History,” is the cumulation of 50+ years of research on culture and civilization, where the Durant’s show many of the repeating patterns and themes that are revealed throughout human history in what is easily the more dense short read (120 ish pages) I have ever come across. The books opens with, “Only a fool would try to compress a hundred centuries into a hundred pages of hazardous conclusions. We proceed.”
On the Official Fletcher Dilmore Book Scale I rate “The Lessons of History,” by Will & Ariel Durant, a 10/10, a very interesting read from authors that dedicated their lives to researching the rise of human civilization.
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