Will Durant---The Lessons of History 

Durant's ability to condense vast amounts of information so concisely and beautifully is an absolute wonder. I often have to pause after reading or hearing a passage written by Durant just to marvel at the writing. With The Lessons of History, I have to pause constantly. I can hardly imagine, but greatly appreciate, the effort required to craft such economical sentences and paragraphs.

Here is a man and his wife who did not waste their time on earth. Anyone seeking a well rounded education would be wise to listen to these words and read their many books.

In ever word, in every sentence, in every paragraph and in every page if this book, wisdom flows.❤

A manuscript peppered with heritage gemstones! A coherent, tasteful , and stylish accounting of historical lessons.

Absolutely wonderful...should be required reading and study for all Earthlings.

I've been reading Will's History of Civilization for 43 years. It never gets boring and there isn't another historian I have greater respect for than Will and Ariel.

I am 15 and love Will Durant's work. I just ordered his book The Greatest Minds and Ideas of all time

Listening to this great audiobook whilst working such a blissful time to live 😊

This book is a MASTERPIECE. I could write 1 book of each paragraph. It destroyed some of my ideas, it’s one of those books that makes you THINK

3:00 "Most history is guessing, and the rest is prejudice." 5:00 "Historiography cannot be a science, it can only be an industry, an art, and a philosophy." 6:07 "In history, as in science and politics, relativity rules; and all formulas should be suspect." 14:33 "History is a fragment of biology." 15:44 "We are subject to the processes and trials of evolution. To the struggle for existence, and the survival of the fittest to survive. So, *the first biological lesson from history is that life is competition.* Competition is not only the life of trade, it is the trade of life. Peaceful when the food abounds, violent when the mouths outrun the food. *Animals eat one other without qualm, civilized men consume one another by due process of law.* Cooperation is real and increases with social development, but mostly because it is a tool and form of competition." 17:27 "War is a nation's way of eating. It promotes cooperation because it is the ultimate form of competition." 17:48 "The second biological lesson of history is that life is selection. In the competition for food, or mates, or power, some organisms succeed and others fail...Nature loves difference as the necessary material of selection and evolution." 18:53 "Inequality is not only natural and inborn, it grows with the complexity of civilization." 20:00 ?? "He who is aware of superiority wants freedom." 21:00 ?? Forms of population control. 22:45 "Equilibrium where production meets consumption." 23:00 "Ideally, parenting should be a product of health, not a by-product of sexual agitation." 26:00 Birth rates and birth control. 30:48 "Only those that are the product of such enfeebling mixtures talk about the equality of races, or think that all men are brothers. All strong characters and peoples are race conscious and are instinctively averse to marry outside of their own racial group." 36:20 Scholars cherry-picking research based on their own biases. History is colorblind. 49:40 "Social institutions are the product of centuries of generations of experiment in the laboratory of history." 49:50 A youth boiling with hormones will wonder why he should not give full freedom to his sexual desires, and if he is unchecked by custom, morals or laws, he may ruin his life before he matures enough to understand that sex is a river of fire that must be banked and cooled by a hundred restraints if it is not to consume in chaos both the individual and the group. So, the conservative who resists change is as valuable as the radical who proposes it. This is the trial heat that innovations must survive to enter the human race. ( *The Lindy Effect - Antifragile* ) 50:50 It is good that the old should resist the young, and that the young should prod the old. Out of this tension comes a *creative tensile strength, of stimulated development, a secret and basic basic unity, a movement of the whole.* 52:06 Economic history divided into three stages: 1) Hunting 2) Agriculture 3) Industry. The moral code of one stage maybe changed in the next. 52:30 Insecurity is the mother of greed. 53:14 Man’s sins maybe the relics of his rise, rather than the stigmata of his fall. 53:40 Peace more victorious than war. Children were economic assets; birth control was made immoral. On the farm, the family was the unit of production under the discipline of the father and the seasons. 56:10 “The authority of father and mother lost its economic base to the growing individualism of industry.” 1:01:40 Our time is a transition of a moral code that has lost its agricultural basis and into an industrial one. 1:03:20 Much of our new moral freedom is good 1:04:30 “Religion has kept the poor from murdering the rich. Since the natural inequality of men dooms many of us to poverty or defeat. Some supernatural hope maybe the sole alternative to despair. Destroy that hope, and class war is intensified. Heaven and utopia are buckets in a well - when one goes down the other goes up. When religion declines, communism grows.” 1:07:30 Corrupt medieval Catholic Church 1:10:50 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. 1:16:30 Education and colleges 17:55 Catholicism survives because it appeals to the imagination, hope and to the senses. Because its mythology brightens and consoles the lives of the poor. 1:22:45 There is no significant example in history before our time of a society successfully maintaining moral life without the age of religion. Even if totally divorced from the State, the church helps in keeping social order. In communist regimes, communism becomes the new religion or ‘opium’ in replacing the church in comforting the people and hope. 1:23:30 If the socialist should fail to destroy relative poverty among the masses, this new religion may lose its fervor and efficacy. The State may wink at the restoration of supernatural beliefs as an aid in quieting discontent. As long as there is poverty, there will be gods. 1:28:25 Agriculture becomes an industry, and soon the farmer must choose whether to be an employee of the capitalist, and being the employee of a State. 1:28:47 *At the other end of the scale, history reports that the men who can manage men manage the men who can manage only things. And the man who can manage money manage all.* Financiers and bankers rise to the top of the economic chain, financing wars and popes, and occasionally sparking revolutions. 1:29:45 Every economic system must sooner or rely on the profit motive to stir individuals and groups to productivity. Normally and generally, men are ranked on their ability to produce (except in war, where they are ranked on their ability to destroy). Since practical ability differs from person to person the majority of such abilities in all societies is gathered in a minority of men. The concentration of wealth is a natural result of this concentration of ability, and regularly occurs in history. 1:36:23 We conclude that the concentration of wealth is natural and inevitable. And is periodically alleviated by peaceable or partial or piecable redistribution. * 1:37:00 The struggle of the capitalist and the socialist 1:42:00 Library of Alexandria, 230 BC 1:43:10 The State became a powerful employer, above the private industrialist who were crushed by taxation. 1:44:00 Regulation, taxation, and attempted tax evasion. Among this Medieval serfdom began. 1:48:45 Chinese corruption and bureaucracy. 1:53:40 Marx and Engels gave the Socialist movement its Magna Carta in *The Communist Manifesto,* and its Bible with *Das Kapital.* 1:55:40 Communism is a war economy. Survives through continued fear of war. Given a generation of peace it’s eroded by the nature of man. 1:56:30 The West’s synthesis of capitalism and socialism 1:57:38 Since men love freedom, and the freedom of individuals in society requires regulation of conduct, the first condition of freedom is its limitation. Make it absolute and it dies in chaos. So the prime task of government is to establish order. *Power naturally converges to a center, for it is ineffective when divided, diluted and spread as in Poland.* 2:02:00 It is unnatural for a majority to rule, for a majority can seldom be organized If the majority of abilities is contained in the minority of men, minority government is as Is inevitable as the concentration of wealth. 2:02:30 The aristocrat is the sanest alternative to selection by money or theology or violence. Trains them from birth for the tasks of government. Aristocracy is a nursery of statesmanship. Aristocracies have rarely produced art. The aristocrat looks upon artists as manual laborers. He prefers the art of life rather than the life of art. The result has been a lifelong holiday and hedonism. The Privileges of place are enjoyed by the fool, and the responsibilities are ignored. Hence the decays of aristocracies. 2:06:30 Violent revolutions do not so much redistribute wealth as destroy it. The natural inequality of man soon creates an inequality of possessions and privileges. Raises to power a new minority with essentially the same instincts as the old. *The only REAL revolution is in the enlightenment of the mind and the improvement of character. The only real emancipation is individual, and the only real revolutionists are philosophers and saints.* 2:11:00 The old don’t like to be thought morose and authoritative, and therefore they immigrate the young. 2:19:38 *Every advance in the complexity of the economy puts an added premium upon superior ability and intensifies the concentration of wealth, responsibility and political power.* 2:19:50 Democracy is the most complicated of all forms of government, as it requires the widest spread of intelligence. 2:33:00 USA / China relations. "Let us refuse to make 100 Hiroshimas in China...We are not afraid that your economic system will displace ours, nor need you fear that ours will displace yours. We believe that each system will learn from each other and will be able to live with it in cooperation and peace." 2:43:17 “In organic periods men are busy building. In critical periods they are busy destroying.” 2:56:13 That science is neutral is delusional. It will kill for us as quickly as it will heal. And it will destroy for us more readily than it can build.

43:37 Character and History 51:14 Morals and History 1:03:40 Religon and History 1:24:00 Economics and History 1:36:51 Socialism and History 1:57:33 Government and History 2:24:40 History and War

This enlightening and provocative book could only have been produced by a curious and diligent generalist like Will Durant. There is much wisdom here.

It is no wonder that Will Durant won the Nobel prize for literature..his work encompasses one half century..50 years guys!! Also the person responsible "ROCKY" DESERVES allaclades for the manner with which Durrants work is presented in audio form. We thank you ROCKY

Such a treasure of knowledge.

How lucky we are to have this treat, thanks to Rocky C, RU-vid, and the Durants!

Loved reading the books many years ago, a high school history nerd. Loved learning about past cultures and minds. Great to come across the audio books. Amazing how one could produce such vast nonfiction literature.

Yet another Durant presentation that I'll be listening to again and again and again...

This is fantastic! Great book by a great writer read by a great narrator!

Great narrator. Picked up all 11 volumes of "a story of civilization"

I simply love Will Durant (and the voice of the reader - an amazing fit!)

Someone said: "Will Durant's books are a great meeting between history and literature. They are not only enlightening but delightful for their style and wit." Well . . . I´ve just ordered some books 🙌 👏 🙏

Thank you for this presentation of the Durant's book. Choice of narration is "spot on". But! "I", personally was/am? able to immerse in "reading" the book itself. So wonderfully spoken that it bears repetitive reading in MANY instances, and 1 can ONLY do that with a Book. Not an easy book to find either. I actually keep it, the book on my coffee, dining, mind meandering "nook". Anyhow thanks! Brett 👋😎

This book blew my mind. An excellent investment of 3 hours.

Thanks for posting. This book, in it's quiet unassuming way, is one of the most potent little works of all time. It will be the last book ever read by a man.

The late Jim Rohn motivated me to give this a listen and I will leave you with one of his greatest quotes " Dont wish it was easy, wish you were better" 🙏 👍 💪 Much respect.

3 minutes in and I know this will be one of the best books I've come across

Most Appreciated and extremely Useful! Thank you Rocky C! Such a wonderful Voice (meaning Ideas) and Education!

Thank you for all Durant uploads Rocky C...........loved them all.

thank you for this upload.

The last minutes are sublime! Really shows the amazing endowment of studying history!

Thank you, Will Durant, for ALL the great audio books you've provided!!! And thanks to those who have taken the time to post! I can find a lot in this one to apply to our present conditions, as if I where watching it all go down today.....

What history teaches us, is not to believe all you hear and little of what you read.

Great material for the self taught geniuses of The word like me.....

Great presentation. Thanks for the upload!

In college a history professor discouraged me from using Durant when writing term papers. I suspect some specialists do not respect generalists in their field. But as Heinlein said specialization is for insects. I am happy as a generalist. I feel closer to the great thinkers of ancient Greece, the European Renaissance, and the Enlightenment, and their modern successors. They are my friends.

Brilliant analysis! Thanks.

0:00 Preface from Will and Ariel Durant 1:23 Chapter 1. Hesitations 7:29 Chapter 2. History and the Earth 14:27 Chapter 3. Biology and History 28:20 Chapter 4. Race and History 43:34 Chapter 5. Character and History 51:10 Chapter 6. Morals and History 1:03:42 Chapter 7. Religion and History 1:23:53 Chapter 8. Economics and History 1:36:50 Chapter 9. Socialism and History 1:57:19 Chapter 10. Government and History 2:24:37 Chapter 11. History and War 2:37:35 Chapter 12. Growth and decay 2:55:30 Chapter 13. Is progress real?

A lot of the things in this book are relevant today.

Highly interesting and wide ranging in philosophical approach!

Every vice was a virtue. Well said.

''What history has to say about the nature, conduct and prospects of man, it is a precarious enterprise and only a fool would try to compress a hundred centuries into a hundred pages of hazardous conclusions. We proceed'' Haha brilliant.

I found Will Durant today in the search for knowledge on the subject of envy. A quote by Durant intrigued me " To speak I'll of others is a dishonest way of pleasing ourselves". We are what we repeatedly do excellence then is not an act but a habit" .was the icing on the cake.

Let us surpass our heroes and set a new, higher, and better standard for humanity!

His thoughts are everywhere ..omnipresent..while I dare to disagree some, I deeply respect this GREAT MAN whom our next genberations to study at least for one year - every day - makes a different person altogether. Rocky, Thank you, what else, we netizens can?

thank you for posting this content

I’m thankful to see this,how ever, it is because of the different cultures different believes what keeps humanity divided,have never been able to find peace ☮️ to live together as one human for 40 thousand years, but lost so many lives, not enough stars in the skies to count the life in human history Thank you

thanks for the upload!

One of my favorite books. Thea has how the worl really work

Thank you

Listend it till the end. Now I'm a better man

Fantastic book. It helps me see what a disaster modern life is and totally blind to repeating the folly’s of the past.

Your time listening is well invested my dear friends, since time is your most valuable asset.

Thank you teacher

Thank you!❤❤❤

Thank you :)

Thank you for the narration

Listen with care to this audiobook, but still rely on your own thinking and make up your mind! Take what is true and leave what isn't.

Thank you.

My life felt incomplete until I heard about Durant

Will Durant's books are a great meeting between history and literature. They are not only enlightening but delightful for their style and wit.

Thx for the upload this is amazing. I would love to ask Durant what he had to say about there being far too much food of far too low a quality as there is today in the west.

I appreciate his/their history.

"Nature smiles at the union of freedom and equality in our utopias.For freedom and equality are sworn and everlasting enemies, and when one prevails the other dies. Leave men free, and their natural inequalities will multiply almost geometrically, as in England and America in the nineteenth century under laissez-faire.To check the growth of inequality, liberty must be sacrificed,as in Russia after 1917. Even when repressed, inequality grows; only the man who is below the average in economic ability desires equality; those who are conscious of superior ability desire freedom, and in the end superior ability has its way." by: Will Durant (1885-1981) American psychologist, philosopher

The Grover Gardner read version w editor John Little is the last revision and includes interviews w Durant.

congrats on your channel.thank you

"this postlude needs little preface" That's when you know it's gonna be a good one...

Such brilliant analysis on human civilization, note to self(nts) watched all of it again 3:12:40

The truth is the truth and it never tires me.

Tai Lopez recommended this gem of a book to me. Like if Tai brought you to this or other great books!

Tremendous work of erudite simplicity...... Min Charles Daniel coleman..❤️🙏🏿🔥

I found another great channel! (Cue Rocky theme)

This is a great book. A must read!

Skip this video completely, go to your local library and check out any one or more of Will Durant's books, written with the assistance of his wife, Ariel. You won't be sorry. They're so much better to read than to listen to this. They are captivating and real.

Thank you. This is the Origin of the concepts of Eras of a type of standing wave positioning properties of "civilization", in continuity and interpretating waves of mutual influence.., a constantly emerging and evolving here-now-forever that is the ever present pattern of temporal Superposition-point Singularity positioning by resonances.., in familiar terms and relationships. The concept of the Quantum Operator that is the natural occurring environment of probability in potential possibility, and that, in Principle, is the ultimate Neoteny.., "we are children", evolved of the Universal Hologram.

Great Scholars, Teachers and Historical People! LOVE "THE BIBLE" !!

Thank yu x

would love to see comparative book addressing the durants' predictions

Will Durant done great work for humanity. I hope AI could read on other languages. So more will enjoy and enlighten

Durant; Under rated; hugely / Rocky C; thank you

Im here thanks to Jim Rohn

The only thing we learn from history, is that we don't learn from history. Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it, while those who do learn from history have to stand by and watch, helpless to stop the folly.

One needs to study many, in order to find the threads of truth that draw all together. Henri Bergson, Rudolf Steiner, The Urantia Book, Bertrand Russell, Carl Yung....all from that period in time...all are great resources.

to sum it up, Mr. Natural sez: "Twas ever thus"

dearest Rocky C, deep thanks for your great uploads :) But, since these are audios only, it would be really great if one could hear them on Podcast. much simpler than keeping full screen empty videos running (as often blocked)... kindly consider uploading all into a fresh Podcast ! ... thanks again.

A daunting task and a good effort to try and understand and both quality and qualify who and what we were and how we got to where we are. The pen and the sword, the selfless visionary to the mere selfish recipient, who’s toil is his next gratification. Hard to not be cynical looking at our decay as access to knowledge multiplies and ignorance abounds. Plato yes

good book, good reading aloud. It' be more convenient if the recording is divided into parts.

Some excellent content but I'm wondering what Mr. Durant would make of some of our present day Universities!!

What's your analytics on this video?

EXCELLENT !!! anyway to add closed captions ???? Please my hearing is gone.

I love these videos but I wish the video titles included Ariel as well since she was involved in this work.

Very good

would love to here Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, C. Murray & D. Murray discuss this!!

The Durants masterpiece belongs to any home library and occupies a shelf in many The Lessons of History Book By Will Durant (PDF-Summary-Review-Online Reading-Download): www.toevolution.com/file/view/576955/the-lessons-of-history-book-by-will-durant-pdf-summary-review-online-reading-download

Great video, thank you very much , note to self(nts) watched all of it 3:12:42

so i was hooked to this lecture until i started noticing false info... however who am i to back it up

Thany you sir for uploading this let me know where i can good free books online

Sufficient, valid and true for all times.

Winnipeg Manitoba Canada 🇨🇦

As a dravidian I'm quite please we got a passing mention in 36:00😂😂😂😂

First published during 1968 and winner of the Pulitzer Prize.