I’ve been reading Will Durant’s ten-part historical series “The Story of Civilization.” On Amazon, someone left an incredible review laying out what they learned from reading the entire series, transcribed below.
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What I learned from reading the whole work
As I said in the first review, I read history to learn the patterns in human behavior. As I detailed above, the highlights and notes feature in Kindle helped me compile all the passages that lit up my brain in one place. From there I sorted them into patterns, and these represented my own personal “Lessons from History.” I share them with you below, with just a few of many illustrative passages from the books.
1. Just as religion is a universal human impulse, so is skepticism. It has always existed, on every continent, and despite the vigorous efforts of the religious to erase all traces, enough remain to confirm its parallel history.
India:
Out of the aphorisms of Brihaspati came a whole school of Hindu materialists, named, after one of them, Charvakas. They laughed at the notion that the Vedas were divinely revealed truth; truth, they argued, can never be known, except through the senses. . . . What is not perceived by the senses, said the Charvakas, does not exist; therefore the soul is a delusion, and Atman is humbug. We do not observe, in experience or history, any interposition of supernatural forces in the world. All phenomena are natural; only simpletons trace them to demons or gods. Matter is the one reality; the body is a combination of atoms; the mind is merely matter thinking; the body, not the soul, feels, sees, hears, thinks. “Who has seen the soul existing in a state separate from the body?” There is no immortality, no rebirth. [Vol. 1]
Israel:
“The sceptic,” wrote that prolific sceptic, Renan, “writes little, and there are many chances that his writings will be lost. The destiny of the Jewish people having been exclusively religious, the secular part of its literature had to be sacrificed.” The repetition of “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” in the Psalms (XIV, I; LIII, I), indicates that such fools were sufficiently numerous to create some stir in Israel. There is apparently a reference to this minority in Zephaniah. [Vol. 2]
Africa:
A Zulu was asked: “When you see the sun rising and setting, and the trees growing, do you know who made them and governs them?” He answered, simply: “No, we see them, but cannot tell how they came; we suppose that they came by themselves.” [Vol. 1]
America:
The Eskimos, when asked who had made the heavens and the earth, always replied, “We do not know.” [Vol. 1]
Europe:
Doth some one say that there be gods above?
There are not, no, there are not. —Euripides, “Bellerophontes” [Vol. 2]
2. Materialism has always existed.
When Buddha grew to manhood he found the halls, the streets, the very woods of northern India ringing with philosophic disputation, mostly of an atheistic and materialistic trend. The later Upanishads and the oldest Buddhist books are full of references to these heretics. [Vol. 1]
3. The material nature and origin of life and the evolution of species were observed throughout human history.
Life does not differ essentially from other matter; it is a product of moving atoms which are individually dead. As the universe took form by the inherent laws of matter, so the earth produced by a purely natural selection all the species and organs of life. — Lucretius (summarized by Durant) [Vol. 3]
Henry of Hesse (1325–97) suggested that new species, especially among plants, might evolve naturally from old ones; this 500 years before Darwin. [Vol.6]
4. Despite this constant current of reason, civilization does not appear to thrive without religion or something similar to it. People do not tolerate the destruction of their cherished beliefs.
In a conflict between superstition and philosophy one may safely wager on the victory of superstition, for the world wisely prefers happiness to wisdom. [Vol. 1]
The gloomy peak where once the people of Epidaurus sacrificed to Zeus and Hera is now the sacred mount of St. Elias. The gods are mortal, but piety is everlasting. [Vol. 2]
Nothing, save bread, is so precious to mankind as its religious beliefs; for man lives not by bread alone, but also by the faith that lets him hope. Therefore his deepest hatred greets those who challenge his sustenance or his creed. [Vol. 4]
[Thomas Hobbes] tries to answer the objections that cautious men advanced against free thought: that most people have not the capacity to think both freely and harmlessly about fundamental problems. [Vol. 8]
5. People are ungrateful and opportunistic, they will turn on you at the first favorable opportunity. Trust no one individually and crowds even less.
Contentment is as rare among men as it is natural among animals, and no form of government has ever satisfied its subjects. [Vol. 3]
What increases with civilization is not so much immorality of intent as opportunity of expression. [Vol. 3]
Caesar distributed corn to the needy, canceled all sentences of banishment except Milo’s, and pardoned all returning aristocrats. No one thanked him for his moderation. The forgiven conservatives resumed their plotting against his life; and while he was facing Pompey in Thessaly the radicals abandoned him for Caelius, who promised them a complete abolition of debts, the confiscation of large properties, and the reallotment of all land. [Vol. 3]
No man is a hero to his debtor. [Vol. 5]
Don’t expect men to be reasonable; allow for their prejudices. “Our prejudices are our mistresses; reason is at best our wife, very often heard indeed, but seldom minded.”—Lord Chesterfield [Vol. 9]
“It is the triumph of reason to live well with those who have none.” — Voltaire [Vol. 10]
6. Influence in politics and the arts requires putting oneself above others and using the others. Leaders cannot treat followers as equals. Put another way: All civilization depends on the concentration of resources and power, which is by definition unequal. Equality is a non-starter. There are no “equal” civilizations to study.
It is as difficult to begin a civilization without robbery as it is to maintain it without slaves. [Vol. 2]
Beloch estimated the slaves in Rome about 30 B.C. at some 400,000, or nearly half the population; in Italy at 1,500,000. If we may believe the table gossipers of Athenaeus, some Romans had 20,000 slaves. A proposal that slaves be required to wear a distinctive dress was voted down in the Senate lest they should realize their numerical strength. Galen reckoned the proportion of slaves to freemen at Pergamum about A.D. 170 as one to three—i.e., twenty-five per cent; probably this proportion was not much different in other cities. [Vol. 4]
In every age and nation civilization is the product, privilege, and responsibility of a minority. [Vol. 5]
Feeling in themselves the strong roots of savagery perpetually pressing against the controls of civilization, [French] men became skeptical of revolutionary claims, ceased to expect incorruptible policemen and saintly senators, and learned that a revolution can achieve only so much as evolution has prepared and as human nature will permit. [Vol. 11]
5. One cannot lead others with complex communication or an open mind. The leader’s mind must concentrate on a pinpoint in order to pierce the blunt obstacles of awkward reality around him and the dull minds of the masses.
[The Apostle Paul’s] mind was of a type frequent among Jews: penetrating and passionate rather than genial and urbane; emotional and imaginative rather than objective and impartial; he was powerful in action because he was narrow in thought. [Vol. 3]
6. The search for like-minded friends may be a mistake. As Robert Greene points out, you may have more to fear from friends than from enemies.
Probably more Christians were slaughtered by Christians in these two years (342–3) than by all the persecutions of Christians by pagans in the history of Rome. [Vol. 4]
7. Christianity inspired and operated more cruelty than we can accurately record or imagine.
Lay magistrates lenient to witches were threatened with excommunication. Between 1560 and 1600 some eight thousand women were burned as witches in a Scotland having hardly a million souls. [Vol. 7]
One voice, amid the fury, appealed to reason. Reginald Scot, an Englishman despite his name, published at London in 1584 The Discouerie of Witchcraft, second only to Johann Wier’s De praestigiis daemonum (Basel, 1564) in the dangerous attempt to moderate the sadistic superstition. Scot described the “witches” as poor old women who could harm no one; even if Satan did work through them they were rather to be pitied than to be burned; and to ascribe miracles to these crones was an insult to the miracles of Christ. He exposed the awful tortures that made witchcraft confessions worthless, the lax irregularity and injustice of trial procedure, the incredibilities gulped down by judges and inquisitors. The book had no effect. [Vol. 7]
A woman who insisted on keeping Saturday as the Sabbath was imprisoned for eleven years. [Vol. 7]
On December 23, 1559, Anne du Bourg, who had dared in the Parlement of Paris to condemn persecution for heresy, was burned at the stake. [Vol. 7]
8. In order to influence history, a person must be lucky. Circumstances must favor an individual’s influence, and no amount of brilliance or hard work can replace the critical role of luck.
Sulpicius [Rufus] was killed, betrayed by his servant; Sulla had the head of the tribune affixed to the rostrum that had lately rung with its eloquence; he rewarded the slave with freedom for his services, and death for his treachery. [Vol. 3]
“I have conceived many plans,” [Napoleon] said, “but I was never free to execute one of them. For all that I held the rudder, and with a strong hand, the waves were a good deal stronger. I was never in truth my own master; I was always governed by circumstance.” [Vol. 11]
9. Prepare for war always. Do not assume everything will continue in safety.
Barbarism is like the jungle; it never admits its defeat; it waits patiently for centuries to recover the territory it has lost. [Vol. 1]
It was during those years [when the empire was threatened by the Goths in its army] that Synesius of Cyrene, half Christian bishop and half pagan philosopher, in an address before Arcadius’ luxury-loving court at Constantinople, described with clarity and force the alternatives that faced Greece and Rome. How could the Empire survive if its citizens continued to shirk military service, and to entrust its defense to mercenaries recruited from the very nations that threatened it? He proposed an end to luxury and ease and the enlistment or conscription of a citizen army aroused to fight for country and freedom; and he called upon Arcadius and Honorius to rise and smite the insolent barbarian hosts within the Empire, and to drive them back to their lairs behind the Black Sea, the Danube, and the Rhine. The court applauded Synesius’ address as an elegant oratorical exercise, and returned to its feasts. Meanwhile Alaric compelled the armorers of Epirus to make for his Goths a full supply of pikes, swords, helmets, and shields. [Vol. 4]
From barbarism to civilization requires a century; from civilization to barbarism needs but a day. [Vol. 6]
10. Despite these long-running challenges, we live in a heavenly age. Life is unlikely to get better than we have it, and we must remember how horrible life was for millennia.
Neither relatives nor friends nor priests nor friars accompanied the corpses to the grave, nor was the office of the dead recited…. In many places of the city trenches were dug, very broad and deep, and into these the bodies were thrown, and covered with a little earth; and thus layer after layer until the trench was full; and then another trench was begun. And I, Agniolo di Tura… with my own hands buried five of my children in a single trench; and many others did the like. And many dead were so ill covered that the dogs dug them up and ate them, dispersing their limbs throughout the city. And no bells rang, and nobody wept no matter what his loss, because almost everyone expected death…. And people said and believed, “This is the end of the world.”—Chronicler of the Black Death in Siena, ca. 1354 [Vol. 5]
[In 18th century England] Eleven to thirteen hours constituted the normal working day, six days a week; the long stretch was relieved by an hour and a half for meals; but those who lingered unduly over their meals forfeited a quarter of a day’s pay. Employers complained that their workmen stopped work to attend fairs, prize fights, hangings, or wakes. To protect themselves against these and other irregularities the employers liked to have a pool of unemployed workers in the neighborhood, upon which they could draw in emergency or in times of quickened demand. When times were slack, workers could be laid off and left to live on the credit of the local tradesmen. [Vol. 9]
Voltaire estimated the average longevity of human life in his time at twenty-two years. [Vol. 9]
11. No matter what we accomplish, future generations will forget us.
Life once passed this way in all its eagerness. [Vol. 2]
[Isabelle d’Este] died in 1539, aged sixty-four, and was buried with preceding rulers of Mantua in the Capella dei Signori in the church of San Francesco. Her son ordered a handsome tomb to be raised to her memory, and joined her in death a year later. When the French pillaged Mantua in 1797 the tombs of the Mantuan princes and princesses were shattered, and the ashes they contained were mingled in the indiscriminate dust. [Vol. 5]
At [Johannes Okeghem’s] death (1495) the musicians of Europe wrote motets to his memory, and Erasmus a “Lamentation.” The names of even the “immortals” are writ in water. [Vol. 6]
In 1581 Bishop Kromer raised a monument to Copernicus against the inner wall of Frauenburg Cathedral, next to the canon’s grave. In 1746 the monument was removed to make place for a statue of Bishop Szembek. Who was he? Who knows? [Vol.6]
A distant relative [of Johann Sebastian Bach], Johann Ernst Bach, studied with the master at Leipzig, became Kapellmeister at Weimar, and left several compositions to oblivion. [Vol. 10]
Benediction
Forty years of happy association in the pursuit of history have come to an end. We dreamed of the day when we should write the last word of the last volume. Now that that day has come we know that we shall miss the absorbing purpose that gave meaning and direction to our lives. [Vol. 10]