The Lessons of History

Will Durant once wrote that "most history is guessing, & 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 & conclusions of their 10-volume excursion into human folly & achievement--&, coincidentally, to determine what value historical guesswork & historians' predispositions may have in understanding the nature of humanity. Their reflections are thematic in nature, discussing the influence & effect upon history of certain qualities, institutions & movements: race, character, moral systems, religion, socialism, government, war etc. Their overall conclusion is at once optimistic & 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 & must be read as such, or as an independent work in the tradition of Augustine's Retractationes & Toynbee's Reconsiderations.--Kirkus (edited)