num_pages: 117
description: Will Durant once wrote that "most history is guessing, &amp; the rest is prejudice." Now, 33 years later, the Durants, in this peroration to their monumental "Story of Civilization," look back to record the lessons &amp; conclusions of their 10-volume excursion into human folly &amp; achievement--&amp;, coincidentally, to determine what value historical guesswork &amp; historians' predispositions may have in understanding the nature of humanity. Their reflections are thematic in nature, discussing the influence &amp; effect upon history of certain qualities, institutions &amp; movements: race, character, moral systems, religion, socialism, government, war etc. Their overall conclusion is at once optimistic &amp; realistic; the phenomenon of progress is no figment of the historian's imagination; it's real, in the sense that each generation is born to a heritage richer than that received by their fathers. Thus, the 20th century is the most blessed of all eras so far, from a cultural standpoint, for it has assimilated the best of the Periclean Greeks, of the Renaissance, of the Voltairian age etc. The Durants' "Story" is, despite the cavils of a few disputatious historians, the historical synthesis par excellence for the intelligent nonspecialist. The Lessons of History, despite its extreme brevity, forms an integrally necessary part of that opus &amp; must be read as such, or as an independent work in the tradition of Augustine's Retractationes &amp; Toynbee's Reconsiderations.--Kirkus (edited)
language: English
title: The Lessons of History
titlecomplete: The Lessons of History
genres: Historical, Audiobook, History, Classics, Science, Economics, Philosophy, Politics, World History, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 15858
publisher: Simon & Schuster (NYC)