Summary

The Durants treat history as compressed human nature: geography, biology, economics, religion, morals, war, and government repeatedly shape what societies can become. Their stance is skeptical and cyclical. Progress exists as greater control of conditions, especially through education, while civilization stays fragile because human nature remains nearly contra-civilized and leaders keep failing to meet change.

“The present is the past rolled up for action, and the past is the present unrolled for understanding”

“Philosophy… is like a drop of water sitting atop a crest of a wave and saying that it is going to analyze the sea”

“It’s very dangerous for an individual to think that his own individual mind can… judge the experience of the human race”

Clamping of liberty not “through the perversity of the rich, but through the impersonal fatality of economic development and through the nature of man. Every complexity puts a premium upon superior ability and intensifies the responsibility of wealth, responsibility, and political power.”

Key Takeaways

Notes

1: Hesitations

• “Most of history is guessing, and the rest is prejudice”
• Historiography is an industry, art, and philosophy
• “The present is the past rolled up for action, and the past is the present unrolled for understanding”

2: The meaning of history

• You are your past
• Geography + transportation dominate political power changes
• Now: Russia, China, Brazil, US (land > shoreline)
• Man is tough

3: History and the earth

• Geography dictates behavior
• But man must capitalize ↑
• Progress: the ability to control conditions

4: Biology and history

• “The laws of biology are the fundamental laws of history”

1. Life is competition
   • Social cohesion is group selection
2. Life is selection
   • Freedom and equality are at odds
3. Life must breed

• ↑ birth rate might determine which ideologies win

5: Race and history

• Aryans
• “The role of race in history is rather preliminary” - more geographic

6: Character and history

• Human nature → instincts:
  • Action or sleep
  • Fight or flight
  • Acquisition or avoidance
  • Association or privacy
  • Mating or refusal
  • Parental care or filial dependence
• Institutions are “the wisdom on generations boiled down after centuries of experimentation in the laboratory of history”
• Creative tensile strength of innovation and conservatism

7: Morals and history

• Morals evolved from hunter gatherer → agriculture → industrial
• Individualism, materialism, less spirituality
• Moral decay unlikely - just a warped / sensationalist view of the past
• Morals likely to improve as we adapt to industrialization
• “Civilization is a subtle collaboration and balance between order and liberty”
• Liberty in the lead due to decline of religious belief → weakens state
  • Copernicus, Darwin
• “It’s very dangerous for an individual to think that his own individual mind can… judge the experience of the human race”
• ↑ “without supernatural beliefs, it’s very difficult to control the animal instincts within us”
  • Religion enabled civilization
• Rationalism: “reason should be the ultimate test of truth”
• “There are many things profounder than reason which should enter into a man’s understanding and judgement of life”
  • Eg. sentiment, tenderness, affection, mystery
  • Instincts + feeling
• “Philosophy… is like a drop of water sitting atop a crest of a wave and saying that it is going to analyze the sea”

8: Religion and history

• “Even the skeptical historian develops a humble respect for religion since he sees it functioning and seemingly indispensable in every land and age”
• Supernatural comfort, discipline, meaning + dignity, stability
• Fear, not morality, first made the gods
• Moral superstate
• Copernicus was the beginning of the death of god
• Lesson: religion has many resurrections
• “As long as there is poverty there will be gods”
• 1. hope, 2) social > individual instincts
• “The decay of religious belief has promoted socialistic movements”

9: Economics and history

• Role of economics in history somewhat overplayed
• Democracy increases inequality
• When number of poor outweigh ability of elites, unstable equilibrium → “legislation redistributing wealth, or by revolution distributing poverty”
• History is a story of concentrating wealth and compulsory recirculation

10: Socialism and history

• Competition needed for evolution of society. Socialism is too friendly
• State liberty / security and personal liberty inversely correlated
• Greek socialism led to serfdom
• Incas were longest-running version of socialism
• Communism was a war economy in Russia
• World is coming to a synthesis of capitalism and socialism

11: Government and history

• Monarchy is the default state of gov’t
• Rome heyday is “perhaps the only period of history where the happiness of a great people was the sole object of government”
• Oligarchies: rule by a minority
  • Democracies: rule by wealth
• Cycle of monarchy, aristocracy, democracy, etc.
• US: native middle class vs imported elite
• Clamping of liberty not “through the perversity of the rich, but through the impersonal fatality of economic development and through the nature of man. Every complexity puts a premium upon superior ability and intensifies the responsibility of wealth, responsibility, and political power.”
• “Democracy has done less harm and more good than any other form of government”
• ↑ must focus on access to equality of access to education and opportunity
• “Freedom is the product of order”
• “The essence of beauty is order” (relative to art)

12: History and war

• “War is the father of all things” (competition)
• Prediction: only a matter of time before all non-Western countries under communist leadership unless US acts

13: Growth and decay

• Two distinct states of society:
  • Organic: “all human actions are classed, foreseen, and regulated by a general theory”
  • Critical: all coordination has ceased, separate individuals in conflict with each other
• States started with conquest, not social contract
• Source of growth: overcoming adversity
• Source of decay: “failure of its political or intellectual leaders to meet the challenges of change”
  • Eg. climate change, social change, economic, geopolitics, inequality, culture

14: Is Progress Real?

• Enlarging instrumentality without improving our purposes
• All the places we haven’t made progress* (eg. morals)
• But what does progress mean to us?
• Happiness isn’t a good measure of ↑: children are happiest, so doesn’t make sense. We’re inherently cynical
• Progress = the ability to control our surroundings
• Education is our greatest achievement
• “Born to an increasing heritage”
• “We become civilized by absorbing civilization”
  • “Human nature is almost contra-civilized”
• Too many people are dropping out of modern society
• Economic history is a heartbeat of concentrating wealth and explosive revolution
• Monarchy → aristocracy → democracy → chaos → dictatorship (inevitable?)
• Recommendations:
  • Make parenting a privilege, not a right (aptitude testing)
  • Annuity or tax exemption for first 18y of first child
  • Parent should be legally responsible for their children living with them
  • Education
  • US broadcasting company controlled by education (PBS?)
  • Religions should preach morality > theology
  • Tougher on crime
  • Further organize labor (unions)
  • Department of consumer research
  • Increase welfare state
• Be skeptical of revolution