Echoes of Time: Ehe Cyclical Wisdom in ‘The Lessons of History’ by Will & Ariel Durant
Having delved into ‘The Lessons of History’ by Will and Ariel Durant in physical form three times — October 2019, April 2021, and most recently in April 2024 — I find new insights with each read. Each session resonates deeply, shedding light on the current dynamics of my life, my city, and even on a global scale.
History doesn’t exactly swing like a pendulum, but as Mark Twain famously noted, ‘it doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes’ Indeed, these rhymes echo loudly through the Durant’s distillation of 5,000 years of human history compressed into a mere 100 pages. This book remains a staple on my shelf, demanding to be read and re-read, continually revealing itself as one of my perennial favorites.
Here are some of the notes I’ve gathered:
“Obviously historiography cannot be a science. It can only be an industry, an art, and a philosophy” And I would add that as well as you can’t believe everything you read, the same applies to history. Who wrote history after all? History is always the winner’s version, because the losers aren’t there any more to write about it.
History is cycles. It’s the main theme of the book. The same happens with rain. We’re currently in a drought in Catalonia. I’m sure it will be the opposite in the future…
