Book Summary 50 — The Lessons of History

History is humankind’s collective memory of the world and provides learnings like nothing else can.

Great book; Pulitzer prize winner, written in 1968 — a long time ago, so it’s interesting to see that many of its insights still hold true. Now more than maybe ever. The book provides insights in various areas by looking through many examples in history from Ancient Egypt to World War II.

Here are the Key Insights:

Earth & History

The influence of geographic factors diminishes as technology grows.

MB: The world is getting smaller. This could not be more true.

Biology & History

1. Life is a competition — peaceful when food abounds, violent when the mouths outrun the food
2. Life is selection — some individuals are better equipped to meet the test of survival
3. Life must breed — nature has no use for groups that cannot reproduce

MB: Thought for Thought — Interesting to think that many concepts nowadays, like equality, go against the basic principle of natural selection. Argument, of course, being ethical behaviour and that we become stronger as a group. Historically, that means we are regressing to an average and will get replaced in way or another in the long term.

Race & History

“Racial” antipathies have some roots in ethnic origin, but they are also generated, perhaps predominantly, by differences of acquired culture — of language, dress, habits, morals, or religion. There is no cure for such antipathies except a broadened education.

MB: We’re all a huge mix of the same ancestors. We might look different, but we’re all the same.

Character & History

Theoretically there must have been some change; natural selection has presumably operated upon psychological as well as upon physiological variations. Nevertheless, known history shows little alteration in the conduct of mankind.

One remarkable character trade, which lasted through the centuries is that the old resist the young, and the young prod the old and out of that tension comes a creative tensile strength, a secret and basic movement of the whole — innovation.

Morals & History

Morals changed largely based on 3 stages mankind went through:

1. Hunting — had to be ready to fight and kill, not knowing when we will eat next. Insecurity is the mother of greed and cruelty. Men got killed hunting, so had to “take” several women.
2. Agriculture — industriousness became more vital than bravery; peace better than war; children became economic assets; birth control was made immoral. Monogamy was demanded, people got married and had kids early.
3. Industrial Revolution — people started leaving authority and unity and work as individuals. City offered discouragement to marriage, but made sex easy.

MB: More security around survival and daily survival struggles give us a moral freedom, which we didn’t have centuries ago. It is good to be relieved the necessity to kill or harm — it allows mankind to establish the moral code they WANT, rather than MUST have.

Religion & History

Does History support a belief in God?

If by God we mean not the creative vitality of nature but a supreme being intelligent and benevolent, the answer must be a reluctant negative. Like other departments of biology, history remains at bottom a natural selection of the fittest individuals and groups in a struggle wherein goodness receives no favors, misfortunes abound, and the final test is the ability to survive.

As long as there is poverty there will be gods.

MB: Nobody actually knows if there is a God and his/her attitude, moral and motives. Religions result from many people starting to believe the same thing, but they keep changing, dying and surviving with time. The book suggests that religion is predominantly adopted throughout history by people to quiet discontent. As long as we carry discontent, there will be gods.

Economics & History

We conclude that the concentration of wealth is natural and inevitable, and is periodically alleviated by violent or peaceable partial redistribution. In this view all economic history is the slow heartbeat of the social organism, a vast systole and diastole of concentrating wealth and compulsive recirculation.

MB: Economy is tightly tied to politics and goes through natural cycles.

Socialism & History

Socialism and capitalism had plenty of opportunities to prove itself over the years. The fear of capitalism has compelled socialism to widen freedom, and the fear of socialism has compelled capitalism to increase equality.

MB: Goes hand in hand with economic and political cycles, but is starting to convert to a mean.

Government & History

Power naturally converges to a center, for it is ineffective when divided, diluted and spread. If the economy of freedom fails to distribute wealth as ably as it has created it, the road to dictatorship will be open to any man who can persuasively promise security to all; and a martial government, under whatever charming phrases, will engulf the democratic world.

War & History

War is one of the constants of history.

States will unite in basic co-operation only when they are in common attack from without. Perhaps we are now restlessly moving toward that higher plateau of competition; we may make contact with ambitious species on other planets or stars; soon thereafter there will be interplanetary war war. Then, and only then, will we of this earth be one.

MB: What a thought — the only way to make everyone fully cooperate on Earth is to have an enemy on another planet.

Growth/Decay & History

Life Dies

…is that a depressing thought? No — life has no inherent claim on eternity and when its time comes death is forgivable and useful.

Civilisations Die

No — not really. Only their frame, its habitat is changed and spread; it survives in memory.

Nations Die

Yes — the resilient man picks up his tools and moves on, taking his memories with him. He takes civilisation with him, but the nation dies.

Progress & History — Is Progress Real?

Since there has been no substantial change in man’s nature during historic times, all technological advances have to be written off as merely new means of achieving old ends — acquisition of goods, sex, overcoming competition, fighting wars, etc.

What is Progress?

1. Increase in Happiness? — No. Our fretting is endless, we’re never entirely happy as we start taking things which once made us happy for granted far too quickly.
2. Increase of control over the environment — it’s a test which can be applied to any organism.

Yes — we have been progressing.

How?

Through education and history.

Education is the transmission of civilisation. If that transmission stopped even just for one generation, we would go back to being savages again.

If a man is fortunate he will, before he dies, gather up as much as he can of his civilised heritage and transmit it to his children. And to his final breath he will be grateful for this inexhaustible legacy, knowing that if it our nourishing mother and our lasting life.