Lessons from History

By Will and Ariel Durant
Foreword by Alonzo L. McDonald
(2004)

Featuring selections from Durants’ famous short book, this Reading helps us to look at current events in light of what we can learn from the past.

In the face of contemporary society’s overwhelming barrage of information and “spin,” it is helpful—and often necessary—to step back and look at current events in the light of the past and to consider what we can learn from history. This Reading will be a catalyst and inspiration in that task. Al McDonald, a senior fellow for the Trinity Forum, notes, “It is particularly crucial for us to recognize that with all the changes the world has undergone during the several millennia of recorded history, the one constant seems to be human nature with its ever-present positive and negative tendencies.”

The Lessons of History is a short book that summarizes the Durants’ findings in their popular multi-volume history, The Story of Civilization. Mr. McDonald has selected portions from each chapter and follows each with comments drawn from his life experience in business, politics, journalism, and academia as a way of inviting you to a similar course of reflection on your own life.

Category: Readings (No. 38)