History

AI- Cognitive revolution: History separates from biology. Narrative is now primary means of explaining the development of humans (Not biological theories)

• "History is Philosophy taught with examples"
• "Character is destiny
• Bonze Age Collapse:
  • Great mystery.
  • Something/Someone destroyed many (most all) the great bronze age civilisations
  • Happened extremely suddenly, not sure what caused it.
  • Almost unparralleled in histogry (Collapse of the Roman empire comes close)
  • Utterly changed (degraded) life for the peoples of the time
  • Ushered in a dark ages (far darker/longer) than "the dark ages" (After the fall of the Roman empire)
  • Cautionary tale for us today. Great/Advanced civilisations can be easily, and quickly, obliterated.
• "Steppe People"
  • Critical role throughout history.
  • Responsible for fall of the Roman Empire (Huns)
  • Cause of Crusades
  • Several Chinese Dynasties from Steppe invasions
• Churchhill:
  • 1/2 American
  • Born 10 years after American civil war
  • Died year malcom X was assisinated.
• Importance of WWI
  • Claim in a couple 100 years people will look back on now (20-21st centuries) as us basically coming to grips with changes from WWI.
  • WWI brought us: WWII/ Middle East / Israel / Revolution in Russia/ Cold war/ Britain and France no longer the most powerful nations)
• Impact of the Black Death (1340s - 1350s)
  • killed 1/2 the population had major societal impacts.
  • Killed many of the clergy and resulted in them being replaced by younger, less devoted people.
  • Lead (many think) to the reformation and the enlightenment.

• How to learn from History/Literature ?

  > Ignore facts and figures. Focus on the moral lessions, what the > characters teach you about life.

• League of Nations:
  • UN is based on the LoN. (Basically is a watered down version).
  • LoN proposed a universal language Esperanto.
  • Assumed countries agreed war was bad; not true of the fascist states.
  • Us went to war w/Korea largely b/c of the agreements in the UN.

• Alexander the Great: ATG probably just as bad as Hitler.
  • At lease Hitler thought we was doing good.
  • ATG just doing it for his glory.
  • Will we come to see Hitler as we see ATG in 1000y ?

• Leviathan: "Pre-state" societies probably much more egalitarian. If you dont like how your being treated you can pick up and leave.
• Punic Wars:
  • Lots of analogies to WWI and WWII
  • Hannibal crosses the Alps and wreaks havoc on Rome.
  • Fabien strategy: waiting it out, avoidance.
  • Death of Archimedes during Siege of Syracuse
  • Scippio Africanis great general fighting Hannibal
  • Carthaginian genocide by Romans
  • Turned Rome from regional power to the main player.

• Julius Caesar felt like he hadn't accomplished much (40) compared to Alexander (32)

• Role of radicals:

  > Claim: The dangerous thing abou the French Revolution and the Soviet Unions early days was that they were casueswhere radicals got hold of an entire country. They then became hot-beds for radical thinking. Claim is that they had a major impact on ~All europe and the US. Leead to US extreme panic during the red scare.

• World went from having 0 communist countries to having a significant fraction of the world (on all continents) be communist in ~30 years.
• “The dead outnumber the living 14 to 1, and we ignore the accumulated experience of such a huge majority of mankind at our peril.”
• Vietnam > For the Vietnamese end game was political power, not body count. They were able to "lose" battles in terms of body count, if it furthered the long-term agenda. > Very hard for the other side to win a war like that. Was a watershed moment in US culture: Changed trust in goverment. Broke the army. Major impact on US foreign policy.
• 10k Greeks > - Mercenaries fighting in Persia in 400 BCE > - Got tricked into fighting on the losing side of a Persian civial war > - Stranded 2000 miles from home in enemy territory > - Made a deal to secure safe passage, but are betrayed. ~All thier commanders murdered or captured. > - Xenaphone who was a common soldier takes on role of leader (Eternal Optimist) > - End up fighting thier way out of Persia > - Some point end up camping in the ruins of Nenevah. Have no clue what it is. Buts its clear to them that its the remants of a civilizatoin that was more powerful than any they have ever come across before (and it was now in ruins!) Dan Carlin "Statue of Liberty in the sand"

Olympusus (From Dan Carlin)

• Alexanders mother
• Fearsome women
• Slept with snakes
• Claimed to channel Dionysus
• May have plotted to kill her husband Philip II who was the most powerful man at the time.
• Philip II assinated at his daughters wedding. (ala JFK) many conspiracies about who did it and why.
• Alexander took over great army on the verge of invading Persia

History as a River (Will Durrant)

Perhaps the cause of our contemporary pessimism is our tendency to view history as a turbulent stream of conflicts between individuals in economic life, between groups in politics, between creeds in religions, between states in war. This is the more dramatic side of history. It captures the eye of the historian and the interest of the reader, but if we turn from that Mississippi of strife how with hate and dark with blood, to look upon the banks of the stream we find quieter, but more inspiring scenes, women rearing children, men building houses, peasants drawing food from the soil, artisans making the conveniences of life, statesman sometimes organizing peace instead of war, teachers forming savages into citizens, musicians taming our hearts with harmony and rhythm, scientists patiently accumulating knowledge, philosophers groping for truth, saints suggesting the wisdom of love. History has too often been a picture of the bloody stream. They history of civilization is a record of what happened on the banks.

• Historians seek to understand the development of inter-subjective entities like gods and nations, whereas biologists hardly recognize the existence of such things. To think historically means to ascribe real power to the contents of our imaginary stories