“Civilization is an occasional and temporary interruption of the jungle.”
I found this quoted in an article over the weekend and it really struck me… When you read history, it is littered with… savagery… not sure of a better word but maybe you can help me. It certainly seems like there is a devolution happening.
So, who is this guy? Meet Will Durant.
William James Durant (November 5, 1885 – November 7, 1981) was an American historian and philosopher, best known for his eleven-volume work, The Story of Civilization, which contains and details the history of Eastern and Western civilizations. It was written in collaboration with his wife, Ariel Durant, and published between 1935 and 1975. He was earlier noted for The Story of Philosophy (1926), described as “a groundbreaking work that helped to popularize philosophy”.
He sought to unify and humanize the great body of historical knowledge, which had grown voluminous and become fragmented into esoteric specialties, and to vitalize it for contemporary application. As a result of their success, he and his wife were jointly awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1968 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977.