The World's Best Book Summaries
What were the social impacts of the Industrial Revolution? What effects of the Industrial Revolution remain in our society today? We’ll cover the Industrial Revolution and its consequences: artificial time, the rise of the state and market, and relative peace. We’ll also look at how the Industrial Revolution gave rise to the idea of individualism.
In Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari uses concepts from physics, chemistry, biology, and history to tell the story of us, Homo sapiens, and the history of human evolution. The history of early human evolution is punctuated by advances in language and technology, and the evolution has been both biological and social. Some social advantages started out as biological disadvantages. We’ll look at each revolution and how it dramatically redirected the course of human history.
What can we learn from the way China’s Jin Dynasty conducted itself in battle? What lessons can the Jin Dynasty teach us about knowing your enemy, exploiting momentum, and governing your forces? We’ll cover the Jin Dynasty’s military strategies and what we can learn from their successes and defeats.
The future of our species may be relatively short, not because we cause ourselves to go extinct, but because we become an entirely new species. This is the future of humanity. We’ll cover the various scenarios of intelligent (man-made) design replacing natural selection: biological engineering, cyborg engineering, and inorganic life engineering. Then we’ll discuss the ethical problems that we face today, and we’ll face even more urgently in the future, as the future of humanity is increasingly dependent on the expert few.
In The Art of War, Sun Tzu says, “Strategy without tactic is the slowest route to victory.” What did Tzu mean by this? What is strategy without tactic? We’ll cover what Tzu says is the slowest route to victory. Learn how the strategic use of resources and management of troops can win you the battle.
What is the history of racism in America? Where did it start? The history of racism in America starts with the European sugar plantations there. Europeans didn’t want to pay for labor since this would have made the sugar too expensive to buy back on the continent, and, by a historical accident, they went to Africa for their unpaid labor. We’ll look at the early history of racism in America, from the first sugar plantations to discrimination in the 1950s.
What are the functions of myths, according to Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces? Do myths have a place in our society today? We’ll cover the various functions of myths and why myths are so important, in the past and today.
Immortality is a tempting vision. Can humans live forever? If not now, will humans ever be able to live forever? And what new challenges could immortality present us with? We’ll cover the science moving humans closer to immortality and the potential problems of being able to live forever.
We tend to think that “imperialism” is a bad word, but were there any benefits of imperialism? What are the legacies of imperialism today? The benefits of imperialism included the shrinking of the world and the dissolution of cultural divides. Among the many tragedies of European empires, the Age of Imperialism also connected disparate nations and cultures. We’ll cover the surprising benefits of imperialism and how they’ve shaped our world today.
In The Art of War, Sun Tzu says, “Move swift as the wind and closely-formed as the wood. Attack like the fire and be still as the mountain.” How can you use the example of nature to help you be victorious in battle? We’ll cover Tzu’s advice, such as to be swift as the wind, on how to understand the environment and imitate it to gain the advantage in battle.