I remember Michael Sugrue saying something to the effect that understanding history is a sort of cheat code for understanding everything. He was talking about literature and philosophy, but it applies almost everywhere, and particularly to current events. Having the context and seeing the bigger picture turns an event from some crazy panicky confusing surprise to just one more step in a longer story. The world just makes a lot more sense, and you're right that your ability to detect complete bullshit increases as well.
Gotta commend this guy for trying to raise that awareness, even though obviously the abridged nature will likely lead to a large amount of distortions. But having that overall framework makes it a lot easier to delve into the specifics later and be able to piece them together. I have always learned history in a total hodge-podge fashion, and while I have a lot of fun trying to put it together myself, whenever I read a more zoomed-out book that ties different eras or locations together, it totally lights my brain on fire (in a good way.)
Awesome comment, thank you. I'm totally with you on the brainfire - the last time I read such a book was already more than a decade ago: Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari. I'm long overdue for a refresh. The world has changed a shocking amount since then.
I'm the same way with history, though I've been more intentional over the last few years in how I approach reading and learning it.
I often find the zoomed out ones slightly frustrating now, though that may be because I've read several millennia or centuries spanning histories. But I also think they're a great place to start with a historical area.
One interesting wrinkle with this one (at least for me) is that it's my first time reading such a large volume on history written from a Japanese perspective, which provides some different kinds of nuance!
Having at least a rudimentary knowledge of history is pretty important for obvious reasons. I mean, even an awareness that it exists should be mandatory, really. How much of our very recent history is just a slightly different variation of some other silly thing that we have declared loudly (to nobody in particular) "Wow! Let's never do THAT again!".
Thanks for raising awareness of this book that raises awareness! :)
I remember Michael Sugrue saying something to the effect that understanding history is a sort of cheat code for understanding everything. He was talking about literature and philosophy, but it applies almost everywhere, and particularly to current events. Having the context and seeing the bigger picture turns an event from some crazy panicky confusing surprise to just one more step in a longer story. The world just makes a lot more sense, and you're right that your ability to detect complete bullshit increases as well.
Gotta commend this guy for trying to raise that awareness, even though obviously the abridged nature will likely lead to a large amount of distortions. But having that overall framework makes it a lot easier to delve into the specifics later and be able to piece them together. I have always learned history in a total hodge-podge fashion, and while I have a lot of fun trying to put it together myself, whenever I read a more zoomed-out book that ties different eras or locations together, it totally lights my brain on fire (in a good way.)
Awesome comment, thank you. I'm totally with you on the brainfire - the last time I read such a book was already more than a decade ago: Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari. I'm long overdue for a refresh. The world has changed a shocking amount since then.
I found reading Sapiens and David Graeber's Debt in pretty short fashion and that really lit my brain on fire.
I'm the same way with history, though I've been more intentional over the last few years in how I approach reading and learning it.
I often find the zoomed out ones slightly frustrating now, though that may be because I've read several millennia or centuries spanning histories. But I also think they're a great place to start with a historical area.
One interesting wrinkle with this one (at least for me) is that it's my first time reading such a large volume on history written from a Japanese perspective, which provides some different kinds of nuance!
Definitely!
Having at least a rudimentary knowledge of history is pretty important for obvious reasons. I mean, even an awareness that it exists should be mandatory, really. How much of our very recent history is just a slightly different variation of some other silly thing that we have declared loudly (to nobody in particular) "Wow! Let's never do THAT again!".
Thanks for raising awareness of this book that raises awareness! :)
Great points, Jorge. Totally agree. Thanks for reading!