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EMBRACING
HISTORY'S LESSONS – What Every College Graduate Should Know
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By Jay R. Allgood Cover
Photo by Amber K. Allgood
January 2004 Soft Cover 6 x 9 460 pg List Price $22.95
2003
Agreka™ Books ISBN 1-888106-68-9 Library of Congress 2003107529
Bibliography. Indexed.
Chapter 1
About the Author Table
of Contents Central Lessons
Appendix A B C
History is a composite of influences –
environment, life forms, great men and women, the common person, class struggle,
excesses of leaders, conspiracies, manipulation, modifying events (acts of
nature, disease), wars, religious movements, and political actions. Further It
is a useful exposé of human nature, cultural fusions, idea evolution,
technological developments, and a flow of events.
Reading history is interesting, but learning its underlying
lessons of history will empower you.
• What was faced in the distant and not so distant past regarding the choices and
challenges of people much like yourself provides insight and reveals clues for survival in the 21st
Century. On reading the book you will become aware of errors made by others.
• Learning about mistakes, realizing the similarities to our problems, identifying
the choices that brought success, will make you far wiser as you proceed forth in life and will arm
you in making better decisions in your own world.
What you can expect to gain from this synthesis of the knowledge of the ages
1. What it means and takes to be educated.
2. What the requirements are for an optimal social system.
3. What constitutes overpopulation, and why the problem is so critical.
4. What constitutes the major sources of conflict and how related
differences are best resolved.
5. How manipulative leaders control crowds and why you should avoid
crowd contagion.
6. What the fundamental differences are in liberal versus conservative
views of politics, education, and other aspects of social functioning.
7. What money is, its uses in the markets, and how it can free or enslave
one.
8. Why fiat money and debt destroys nations.
9. What key factors influence decisions regarding belief.
10. Core lessons for helping steer one’s life, nations, and world into the
future.
Surprisingly, few authors have attempted to delineate the "lessons" of history in
a concise form where they can be easily examined, pondered, and evaluated – in relation to each
other.
A work over twenty years in the writing, Jay Allgood has produced a masterful
analysis, drawn from the finest minds of history, and synthesized deflected material from hundreds
of sources.
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Chapter 1
1.0 WHAT IT’S ABOUT
1.1 Seeking a Bonanza
Surprisingly, few authors have attempted to delineate the lessons of history in a
concise form where they can easily be examined, pondered, and evaluated separately and in relation
to each other. That goal is pursued here based on the premise there are useful lessons in the
historical record (the assertion is addressed at length in this chapter).
Benefits of studying the past include achieving a knowledge base for making good
judgments (and for avoiding errors); it also aids in achieving a sense of value and order. Historian
Michael Howard proclaimed that a knowledge of history is necessary to avoid making disastrous
decisions. Perhaps equally important is the fact that comprehending the past helps us understand the
origins of culture and what sort of entities we are.
Ironically, as Hegel, pointed out, "History teaches that people don't learn from
history." This was echoed by Robert Prechter who wrote, "People learn from their own mistakes,
but seldom from the distant past."
Perhaps they would if the lessons were given more concisely and clearly. To do so
is another aim of this endeavor.
One of the main difficulties in such a task is minimizing subjectivity. Another
is that even after a set of lessons has been delineated some selections may seem obvious, while
others may not seem justified by available evidence. For these and other reasons the reader is
expected to consider the material presented as a framework upon which to impose his or her own
judgments.
Of course, forming judgments involves thought. And, should this disquisition
exercise neural circuits and stimulate discussion, it will serve a useful purpose. If it helps in
promoting understanding and assists in making sound decisions. . .bonanza!
1.2 Scope and Approach
In this work, no effort has been made to delineate lessons from the "hard"
sciences except to indicate the overriding influence of key technological developments. The reason
is that the dependence of inventions on the past is too obvious to warrant elaboration; virtually
the whole of science is built on what has been done before.
What then is included and why? The organizational structure of this work came
about as notes from the record, accumulated over years of reading, were grouped into similar
subjects. Most were on sociology, government, war, economics, religion, progress, and adjunct
influences. But, those are the main aspects of the collective lives of people. Naturally, they would
be the areas in which important lessons lay!
That does not mean there are no lessons more closely related to the psychological
nature and behavior of people, there are. Some of them have been identified by Bronowski and Mazlish
among others; the more enlightening ones are summarized later in this document. Still, it was
considered necessary for space considerations to limit lessons identified here primarily to those
drawn from humanity’s social organization and functioning.
Within those areas, an effort has been made to confine the selected lessons to
those from similar multiply-occurring events, to widely accepted ideas, and to basic trends — since
they are the ones most likely to be reflected in the future. That approach seems the best means of
minimizing the influence of personal bias or opinion.
To further focus the scope and permit getting at useful "gems" within the
indicated areas it is sufficient here to simply view history as an aggregation of events and
experiences from the past for the benefit of those in the present and the future. The lessons
selected, then, are primarily those based on group action.
To clarify the lessons, they are given in the context of summaries of the related
fields. To some this necessity probably will not be satisfying, however, it should be remembered
that volumes have been written on these subjects. Covering more than closely related illuminating
introductory material is impractical.
Major lessons cited in the body of the text are summarized in Chapter 10. Author
citations plus a bibliography of key references are given for those who wish to explore the
encompassed subjects in more depth.
1.3 Concepts of History
A key question is: WHAT CONSTITUTES HISTORY? Different ideas about that are
examined in this section together with an assessment which constitutes the framework for the entire
study. The concepts presented reflect the emphasis various authors have given to the subject and
demonstrate the awesome flexibility of the human mind. They also mirror the wide scope of historical
study.
History is usually regarded as a record of the nature of mankind, a composite of
experience, a linking of causes, and a sequence of intrigue and aggressions. Alternately, it may be
thought of as a web of events evolving from the nature of mankind, a means of transmitting
traditions through generations, and a record of the development and spread of religious and other
ideologies. Webster defines it as "a chronological record of significant events."
Still other notions are that history is: "the growing ingression of knowledge in
the generations of man" (Einar C. Erickson); ". . .a record of man's achievements and dreams"
(anon); ". . .the story of mankind, of how the world came to be the way it is" (J. M. Roberts).
Clive Ponting saw history as a long record of humanity's attempts to circumvent the limitations
imposed by nature. William Smyth says it is but a representation of human nature.
To others, history is: the story of noble causes (Timothy J. Cooney); a record of
intrigue (Tacitus); a concatenation of specific causes with specific results (Columbia History of
the World, Garraty & Gay). Muller saw it as a series of short-run situations that may
permanently alter the long-term course of events.
Among the negative views of history are that "it is the aggregation of millions
of decisions by the masses who are blind to what they are doing" (Tolstoy); "little more than the
register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind" (Edward Gibbon); and a long record of
failed policies from ignoring the laws of economics (von Mises).
Hegel viewed it as a continuous conflict of ideas within a class struggle. Marx and Engles also
considered it as the story of the struggles between classes to partition wealth. Marx thought
history was a science where economic forces are dominant in people’s interactions and in countries
relations with each other.
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