The Lessons of History is a delightful little book. Durant manages to summarise a lifetime's worth of meticulous historical study into 100-odd pages of beautiful prose. Each chapter explores a certain topic, for example History and Politics or History and War, illuminating how that particular theme has shaped the world we live in. Durant mingles a realistic acceptance of the brutality of history with a subtle optimism – vaguely reminiscent of Camus' absurdism (see The Myth of Sisyphus).
History smiles at all attempts to force its flow into theoretical patterns or logical grooves; it plays havoc with our generalizations, breaks all our rules; history is baroque.
We accept these possibilities in our stride, and retort to the cosmos in the words of Pascal: “When the universe has crushed him man will still be nobler than that which kills him, because he knows that he is dying, and of its victory the universe knows nothing.”
I don't agree with all of Durant's conclusions (or even statements) – Durant makes occasional remarks about society's immorality, using a Western Christian frame of reference. But that doesn't much detract from my enjoyment of the book. It is concise, beautifully written, and incredibly thought-provoking.