Ariel Durant (1898–1981)
Author of The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers
Series
Works by Ariel Durant
The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers (1926) — Author — 4,304 copies
Interpretations of Life: A Survey of Contemporary Literature: The Lives and Opinions of Some Major Authors of Our Time (1970) — Author — 85 copies
Our Oriental Heritage: Part 1 - The Establishment of Civilization, Sumeria, Egypt, Babylonia, and Assyria (1935) 15 copies
Rousseau and Revolution: Part 4 - Johnson's England II, The Collapse of Feudal France (1967) 5 copies
The Life of Greece: Part 3 - The Decline and Fall of Greek Freedom, The Hellenistic Dispersion (1939) 4 copies
The Age of Voltaire: Part 3 - The Advancement of Learning, The Attack on Christianity (1965) 4 copies
The Story of Civilization, 1-7 3 copies
Rousseau and Revolution: Part 1 - Prelude, France before the Deluge, The Catholic South I (1967) 3 copies
The Reformation: Part 3 - The Strangers in the Gate, Behind the Scenes, The Counter-Reformation (1957) 2 copies
The Age of Reason Begins: Part 3 - The Faiths Fight for Power II, The Tentatives of Reason (1961) 2 copies
The Story of Civilization, 1-9 2 copies
World History (multi-volume) 1 copy
Tarihten Alınacak Dersler 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- Kaufman, Ada/Ida (birth)
Kaufman, Chaya - Birthdate
- 1898-05-10
- Date of death
- 1981-10-25
- Burial location
- Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, Los Angeles, California, USA
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine
- Place of death
- Los Angeles, California, USA
- Places of residence
- Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine
New York, New York, USA - Education
- Ferrer Modern School, New York, New York, USA
Art Students League of New York - Occupations
- historian
writer - Relationships
- Durant, Will (husband)
- Awards and honors
- Presidential Medal of Freedom (1977)
Los Angeles Times Woman of the Year Award in Literature (1965)
Pulitzer Prize (General Nonfiction, 1968) - Short biography
- Chaya (or Ada) Kaufman was born in Ukraine and emigrated with her family to the USA. In 1913, while a 15-year-old schoolgirl in New York City, she fell in love with and married Will Durant, one of her teachers. The most famous story told about her is that she was so young, she arrived at City Hall on rollerskates for their wedding. Durant called her Ariel, and she later adopted the name legally. She was involved with her husband in the writing of every volume of The Story of Civilization but only received author credit for the volumes published in 1961 and after. She shared the Pulitzer Prize in 1968 for "Rousseau and Revolution."
Members
Discussions
The Story of Civilization by the Durants: Yea or Nay? in Non-Fiction Readers (December 2021)
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My List (1)
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 91
- Also by
- 10
- Members
- 22,004
- Popularity
- #975
- Rating
- 4.1
- Reviews
- 170
- ISBNs
- 246
- Languages
- 13
Human behavior is affected by many factors. The values of the factors change, but the methods in history repeat, just with different details. Not much has changed in the character of people, as the desires are the same but expressed differently. Same strategies used but with different associations. Humans are evolutionary trained to be competitive for resources, for even cooperation is a tool and form of competition. Climate, geography, and nature can limit human capacity, but the limits were overcome by human ingenuity. Knowledge can be used to improve society, or decimate it. Making those who resist change as important as those who inspire change. Religion and government have been used to enable cooperation between people. Religion provides a moral code that is above even the most powerful people. Government enforces laws that provide freedom by restricting absolute freedom’s destructive capacity. Civilization is dependent on education, for civilization is not inherited.
What Are Some More Lessons Of History?
All historians are partial, for even those who think they are not, choose material and subjects based on their partiality. What normally makes history are the exceptional events, rather than most of history which is more mundane.
Moral laxity is not a sign of moral decay, but of a transitioning moral code. Religions rise and fall, only to be resurrected. Moral life used to be aided by religion, but contemporary society does not use religion.
War is the norm, and it part of the competitive process. The individual is restrained by morals and laws, but the state does not have such restraints.
Inequality is cyclical. An inevitable concentration of wealth, which can become intolerable that inspires the redistribution of wealth using various means. Dictators rise when wealth distribution is inappropriate. It was because power has been abused that lead to revolution that gave rise to democracy, which has taken its turn in misgovernance.
Caveats?
The focus is on broad categories, and describing their trends over the course of history. There is a lack of information on any specific society or era. This book prompts the reader to search for that information, and provides a way to interpret the events.
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