Book Summary: The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant
The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant is a sweeping examination of history, human nature, and the patterns that we […]
Book summaries, podcast summaries, and some other things
The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant is a sweeping examination of history, human nature, and the patterns that we […]
I’m prefacing this summary of Economics: The User’s Guide with a disclaimer: There’s a lot that I haven’t summarised, because the book […]
What motivates people to go to war? In this summary of Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to […]
Many people compare Sapiens to Guns Germs and Steel. In my opinion, GGS overall is a better book than Sapiens. But both are worth reading.
A very detailed summary of the book Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari. Around 70,000 years ago, homo sapiens developed superior cognitive functions and wiped out other human species. Harari then describes our species’ changes throughout the Agricultural Revolution (around 12,000 years ago) and Scientific Revolution (500 years ago). He finishes by looking into the future, which may soon see the end of Sapiens as we know it.
There are many criticisms of Guns, Germs and Steel. This summary outlines, in hopefully a fair and balanced way, the key criticisms and responses to it.
In Guns, Germs and Steel, Diamond sets out to answer a question posed by one of his New Guinean friends: why did human development proceed at such different rates on different continents? This is a detailed summary of the 20th anniversary edition of the book published in 2017.
Destined for War is about the dynamic that arises when a rising power (China) threatens the existing ruling power (America). Allison looks back at examples of similar past dynamics starting with Athens and Sparta, and suggests ways in which we can learn from history and hopefully avoid war.
The main thrust of Political Tribes is that group identities based on things like ethnicity, religion and skin color are very important but the US has often failed to recognise this in its foreign policy.