History · Similar reads
Books like The Lessons of History
The best books like The Lessons of History are Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and Guns, Germs, and Steel. The Lessons of History by Will & Ariel Durant is about civilizations, human nature, progress. If that's what drew you in, here are 12 books that share its DNA — each summarized on Superbook, and ready to chat with in the app.
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
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Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Yuval Noah Harari · History
Sapiens traces the full arc of human history from the emergence of Homo sapiens in Africa roughly 70,000 years ago to the present.
Both dig into power.
Read the summary → - The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
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The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Edward Gibbon · History
Edward Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, published in six volumes between 1776 and 1789, is one of the monuments of historical writing in English.
A kindred history read.
Read the summary → - Guns, Germs, and Steel
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Jared Diamond · Science
Guns, Germs, and Steel is Jared Diamond's attempt to answer a question posed to him by a Papua New Guinean politician named Yali: why did Europeans end up with so much cargo — wealth, technology, power — while other peoples had comparatively little?
A kindred history read.
Read the summary → - The Better Angels of Our Nature
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The Better Angels of Our Nature
Steven Pinker · Science
The Better Angels of Our Nature is Steven Pinker's argument, supported by extensive historical and statistical data, that human violence has declined dramatically over long time periods and that this decline is real, not an artifact of reporting or perception.
A kindred history read.
Read the summary → - Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
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Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
Yuval Noah Harari · History
Homo Deus picks up where Sapiens left off, but turns to face the other direction.
A kindred history read.
Read the summary → - History of the Peloponnesian War
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History of the Peloponnesian War
Thucydides · History
Thucydides' account of the twenty-seven-year conflict between Athens and Sparta stands as the founding document of political realism and the first work of history that treats evidence and causation as problems to be solved rather than stories to be told.
Shares human nature and power with The Lessons of History.
Read the summary → - Beyond Good and Evil
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Friedrich Nietzsche · Philosophy
Beyond Good and Evil is Nietzsche's assault on the philosophical tradition he had been trained in and had grown to distrust.
Shares power and morality with The Lessons of History.
Read the summary → - Civilized to Death
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Christopher Ryan · Science
Christopher Ryan is the co-author of Sex at Dawn, a 2010 book that argued human beings are not naturally monogamous.
Shares human nature and progress with The Lessons of History.
Read the summary → - On the Genealogy of Morality
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Friedrich Nietzsche · Philosophy
On the Genealogy of Morality is Nietzsche's most rigorously argued work — three sustained essays that trace the historical origins of moral concepts he believes we have inherited without examining.
Shares power and morality with The Lessons of History.
Read the summary → - The Laws of Human Nature
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Robert Greene · Psychology
Robert Greene is a writer whose career has been built on synthesizing historical biography and social observation into frameworks for understanding power, strategy, and human behavior.
Shares human nature and power with The Lessons of History.
Read the summary → - The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation
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The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation
Matt Ridley · Science
The Origins of Virtue begins from a puzzle: humans cooperate extensively with non-relatives, a behavior that seems to contradict the logic of natural selection, which predicts that organisms should act in the interests of their genes and close kin.
Shares human nature and morality with The Lessons of History.
Read the summary → - A People's History of the United States
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A People's History of the United States
Howard Zinn · History
Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, first published in 1980, retells American history from the perspective of those who rarely appear in conventional textbooks: Native Americans, enslaved people, industrial workers, women, immigrants, and dissidents of various kinds.
Both dig into power.
Read the summary →
Books like The Lessons of History: quick answers
What are the best books like The Lessons of History?
The best books like The Lessons of History by Will & Ariel Durant are Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with The Lessons of History, such as civilizations, human nature, progress.
What should I read after The Lessons of History?
A natural next read after The Lessons of History is Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. Both dig into power. Other strong choices are The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker.
What books are similar to The Lessons of History by Will & Ariel Durant?
The Lessons of History centers on civilizations, human nature, progress. Books with a similar feel include Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari, History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
