The Lessons of History, William and Ariel Durant - Bookclub #47

eldergill (52)in #bookclub • 6 years ago (edited)

About the Author

Will Durant’s writing career began with the publication of Philosophy and the Social Problem (1917). His second book, The Story of Philosophy (1926), sold more than two million copies in less than three decades and was translated into several languages. The following year his only novel, Transition, appeared. It is largely an autobiographical account of his own early social, religious, and political disillusionment. In 1970 Durant published Interpretations of Life: A Survey of Contemporary Literature. This work, an expansion of the notes of a lifetime of reading modern literature, is informal and anecdotal and is aimed at the general reader.

In 1913, while teaching at the Ferrer Modern School in New York City, Durant married one of his pupils, Ada (or Ida) Kaufman, whom he called Ariel; she later adopted the name legally. Though she had been involved in the writing of every volume of The Story of Civilization, Ariel Durant was not given formal recognition as Will Durant’s collaborator until 1961, with the publication of the seventh volume, The Age of Reason Begins. She continued as coauthor with her husband of the subsequent volumes in the series, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning 10th volume, Rousseau and Revolution (1967). They described their work together in A Dual Autobiography (1977).

A little bit about the book

This is a great book that raises a lot of questions about the ideas of progression and learning from our mistakes in the past. Will and Ariel Durant's "The Lessons of History" is a collection of their essays compiling over 5,000 years of history. They purposefully looked at what worked historically when it came to policy, economics, socialism, war and in essence, human nature.

This is fascinating to read because we live in a very complex society that we as complex beings have created. It is apparent that a lot of the reasons why we, despite having the means and understanding to end global suffering and conflict - we simply cannot because we do not understand ourselves well enough. This is why we have created these 'efficient' societies that work on natural hierarchy and competition - both the Authors understand this, and look at what works best based on our current behaviour and attitudes to life.

The book looks at the possibilities and limitations of humanity over time looking at the towering themes of history in order to give meaning to our own history. The Authors both won Pulitzer Prizes for their work.