The Lessons of History (An Excerpt)

The Lessons of History--Simon and Schuster | 1968 | Will and Ariel Durant

[Dr. Zzyzx]

Will and Ariel Durant spent their lives documenting the history of civilization in a ten-volume masterpiece that consumes between 25 and 30 inches on ones bookshelf.

As an epilogue to that work, they wrote a book entitled "The Lessons of History." I was reading the penultimate chapter, entitled “Growth and Decay” and ran across this:

"When the group or a civilization declines, it is…through the failure of its political or intellectual leaders to meet the challenges of change. The challenges may come from a dozen sources, and may by repetition or combination rise to a destructive intensity…. Taxes may mount to the point of discouraging capital investment and productive stimulus. Foreign markets and materials may be lost to more enterprising competition; excess of imports over exports may drain precious metals from domestic reserves. The concentration of wealth may disrupt the nation in class or race war. The concentration of population and poverty in great cities may compel a government to choose between enfeebling the economy with a dole and running the risk of riot and revolution." pg. 92

This book was published in 1968. Looks like they had it pretty-well pegged.

[fone]

Some wise person once said

“Those who fail to understand history
are doomed to repeat it.”

[bennowens]

Another great point from this book is that liberty and equality are two opposite ends of a teeter totter. You can have one or the other but impossible to have both at the same time.

[o_1_2_3__]

“Without a vision, the people perish.”

[poconopundit]

Great to see the Will and Ariel Durant mentioned in this forum! It’s very appropriate to look back to the words of great men and scholars. The founding fathers were great readers of history, and it was that knowledge that culminated in our Constitution.

Certain passages in the Story of Civilization I have read over and over again. My favorite book in the series is “Our Oriental Heritage”, written by Will Durant. Two sections I find amazing:

- Ancient Indian philosophy and Shankara, who Durant calls the greatest of Indian philosophers (page 546)

- The discussion on Confucius, page 658, with his lessons of government and the Higher Man.

Perhaps it would please the ghost of Will Durant to quote his excellent passage on the value of sincerity (page 666).

Clarity and honesty of thought and expression were the first lessons of the Master. “The whole end of speech is to be understood. When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not, to admit the fact — this is knowledge.”

Obscurity of thought and insincere inaccuracy of speech seemed to him national calamities. If a prince who was not in actual fact and power a prince should cease to be called a prince...

Hence when Tsze-loo told Confucius, “The Prince of Wei has been waiting for you to administer the government: what will you consider the first thing to be done?”

Confucius answered to the astonishment of prince and pupil, “What is necessary is to rectify names.”