A New book that I recommend
I
have now read the book “Peak Human” ISBN 9781805 463 870 (Pocket).
The book “Peak Human” is written by a Swede – Johan Nordberg. In an interview he was asked: Why as a Swede he did not write the book in Swedish, he replied: When I write in English I need to think more about what I am writing. And I needed that when I wrote the book.
Now that I have read “Peak Human” I feel I need to recommend this book. Its secondary title is: What We Can Learn from the Rise and Fall of the Golden Ages.
For me, the book meant that I gained new insights about:
Chapter 1) I was forced to acknowledge that the Athenian state was the one who took the most responsibility, when ancient Greece defeated the Persian Empire. I have previously tended to overemphasize the importance of Sparta’s efforts, even though I was well aware that it was primarily the Athenians who ensured that the Persians were defeated at Marathon.
Chapter 2) The book makes no mention of the city of Rome possibly being founded by the Spartans (which I think I remember it did). Didn’t learn much more about the Roman Republic.
Chapter 3) Learned a lot more about the Abbasid Caliphate.
Chapter 4) I knew almost nothing about the Song Dynasty in China before I read this chapter in the book. What I learned me was very interesting. I had no idea that the Song Dynasty had been so successful.
Chapter 5) About Renaissance Italy Did not provide any new groundbreaking insights for me.
Chapter 6) gave me new realities about how much the Netherlands meant to the founding of modern Western civilization.
Chapter
7) About the Anglosphere was rewarding reading. Got a lot of new realizations on the influences of the English speaking world on our modern western civilisation..
PS. I have previously recommended reading the book "Sapiens" by Yuval Harari. It is the world's most read history book (sold over 30 million copies). And my advice was appreciated. So if you have no yet read it I do recommend you to do so a.s.a.p.
Ref:
https://axiom1b.blogspot.com/2015/09/sapiens-brief-history-of-humanity.html
Recension in Swedish Newspaoper Swedish Daily 2026-01-10:
Book | Peak Human - Education is not achieved by command
Last year's most pleasant educational journey
was Johan Norberg's "Peak human: What we can learn from the rise and fall
of Golden ages" (Atlantic Books).
One of the most important insights is how
little in politics is actually about difficult trade-offs. All civilizations
that have flourished have, under relatively great economic and intellectual
freedom and openness to trade, achieved more or less everything at once: economic, cultural and scientific
development.
For example, if you compare ancient Athens
with its competitor Sparta, Athens had literature, poetry, art, architecture,
philosophy and humor - which it was also allowed to direct at the rulers. In
the more authoritarian Sparta, nothing of lasting value was created (except
military discipline).
Athens even had better warriors. Sparta had certainly hardened its soldiers
since childhood in battle and hardship, but they were unimaginative and hierarchical
where the Athenians were cunning and meritocratic. Under the right
conditions, it seems that people can achieve great works of the kind we
celebrate annually at the Nobel Prize in our time.
If you look at history, civilizations have
flared up in such different parts of the world that they can hardly be tied to
ethnicity, religion or geography. Especially not as the latest, Anglo-Saxon,
wealth explosion has spread over large parts of the world. Political freedom and a culture of curiosity, openness and a desire to
experiment, however, seem to be indispensable components.
Speaking of the latter, after reading Johan
Norberg's book, I have a message for Swedish politicians in general, and for
the Liberal party in particular: Nowhere
in history does education and human flourishing seem to have been commanded or
mastered.
In the section on the Renaissance, Norberg
describes how the humanists who led the
development of the humanities repeatedly spoke and wrote about “the enormous
joy they found in reading, writing and understanding”. Monks during the
preceding Dark Ages also read and wrote, but then out of duty and because it
was expected. If they had thought further on their own and concluded that what
they repeated and memorized was not correct, they would have been punished for
this violation of the prevailing order. Only
with joy and freedom did people’s curiosity become aroused, and discoveries and
development took off.
I think we find the flaw here that prevents the
Liberals’ newfound mantra – educate yourself, behave yourself, care yourself –
from taking off. Those who like to talk about education in the Swedish public
sphere are usually either looking to rake in contributions to the organization
they represent, or they want to criticize others’ lack of education in order to
score points with people who want to feel superior to others. The Liberals also
speak to this audience. Their exhortation to “educate yourselves” is directed
at others from an imagined authority, like a parent who wants the child to eat
the vegetables on the plate.
Rather, educated
people are characterized by the fact that they generously share their
knowledge, and by their example demonstrate the joy it can bring.
Good representatives of this attitude have
vividly demonstrated how the experience of food and drink – in itself a not
unimportant source of joy – is enhanced by also knowing its traditions, origins
and the companies behind them. This does more for the dissemination of
knowledge and the joy of discovery than all the admonishing liberals. If you want to pave the way for the next
renaissance, it is therefore important to set a good example and share what you
have. You can draw from the wealth of knowledge we have accumulated and
show us new and promising possibilities.
But you must not forget to speak to and trust
people’s inner drives, and give them great freedom on their journey of
discovery. However, establishing in detail and
politically determining what people should know, or strictly admonishing them
to educate themselves, risks killing the joy of discovery and counteracting the
very goals one claims to want to achieve.
