The Daily Dose/January 20, 2020
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience…
CAPSULE BOOK REVIEW: The Story of Civilization, Vol. I, Our Oriental Heritage by Will Durant: First published in 1935, Our Oriental Heritage represented a change in how history was written. Before Durant, history used to be written by historians for historians. Durant changed that, making history accessible for what he liked to call “the general reader” which, in this case, means someone well-read who is not a historian. Times were changing in the interregnum between world wars and Americans were more literate than ever and Durant’s series found no small amount of readers.
For The Record: Our Oriental Heritage goes all the way back to the Sumerians and gradually works its way east, through India and China before finishing with an altogether too short chapter on Japan.
Fly In The Ointment: Durant’s goal was to tell the story of civilization and whether he succeeded or not depends on you ask. Historians have long tended to get their shorts in a knot over the series, citing both inaccuracies and Durant’s dependence on secondary, non-contemporary sources.
Some Philosophy Crap: Durant himself called the project “brave stupidity” and acknowledged errors to be as minor as they were inevitable, saying in the forward to Our Oriental Heritage
…most history is guessing, and the rest is prejudice…
Durant’s strength is not in showing how the masses of any era fed, housed and amused themselves – though the masses aren’t ignored – but how great minds and good and bad people – everyone from inventors and kings to artists, philosophers and saints – carried the torches that advanced humanity.
Dry, Technical Matter: Though Durant has a point to make about history, he doesn’t preach, doing a good job of showing how nothing really changes in our collective human experience: to paraphrase the Hindus, everything has happened, everything will happen.
Final Ranking: A: We don’t trot the highest ranking out too often and, in fact, have debated whether the folly of trying to tell what happened a thousand years ago automatically disqualifies a top mark. On the other hand, The Story of Civilization is, by any measure, an important work, commanding a place in any substantive personal library.
In the end, we decided not to quibble because Durant does a brilliant job of doing what you pay us writers to do: give us insights into our human experience we hadn’t considered before. No one does this better than Durant (and his wife Ariel, who only started receiving credit on Vol. 7), though for our money he is matched in this by Gore Vidal and Louis L’Amour.
Today At The Site
Editor’s Note: it’s Read Free Fortnight at The Diary of a Nobody. So go, scoot, click on the link and enjoy the Diary with Sparrow’s compliments.
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow continues to rack up big hours sleeping. Today’s Diary.
I’ve really been racking up the sack time lately…Now, I did cheat and take a shot of Zzzz-Sleep this morning because I’d slept until 1930 Saturday and wasn’t all that tired, but that’s what Zzzz-Sleep is for: getting to sleep in these circumstances…It did its work wonderfully and I only got up once to use the can which used to be news but now is par for the course.
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On This Date
Great moments in us.
In 1936 – The reign of Edward VIII as king of the United Kingdom begins following the death of his father King George V, who had reigned since 1910. Edward would abdicate the throne in December after the uproar caused by the announcement he planned to marry American divorcee Walis Simpson. It remains the shortest reign of a British monarch since the formation of the United Kingdom in 1801.
In 2003 – Patrick Roy of the Colorado Avalanche becomes the first NHL goaltender to play in 1,000 games in a 1-1 tie against the Dallas Stars. Roy would retire after the season with 1,029 games played and 60,214 minutes on the ice, which comes out to almost 42 days in goal. Roy’s record was broken by Martin Brodeur in the 2009-10 season and Brodeur retired in 2014 with 1,266 games played, still the NHL record.
In 1979 – Chic is at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 for the fourth of six non-consecutive weeks with Le Freak. Earlier, the song had spent five weeks at #1 on Billboard’s soul chart and seven weeks at #1 on Billboard’s dance chart. It was the third biggest hit of 1979 and ranked 24th on Billboard’s 60th anniversary Hot 100 in 2018. Le Freak had first gone to #1 on Dec. 9 before dropping to #2 for before returning to #1 for two more weeks on Dec. 23. It’s three times moving into the #1 spot was then a Hot 100 record, though research into the status of this record was inconclusive.
Quotebook
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
There is always something else to be done. But if you want the world you must forget insignificant places… – Gore Vidal, Creation
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
It’s not who you know, but what you know.
Wilt Chamberlain finished the 1966-67 NBA season with a 68.3% field goal percentage, an NBA record that stood until he broke it with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1972-73 when he shot 72.7% from the field, a record which still stands.
Today’s Stumper
Cheaper than Trivia Night at the bar.
Who succeeded Edward VIII as monarch of Great Britain? – Answer next time!
