Patrick Griffin - The Lessons of History - [Joys of Compounding, EP.23]

Today’s teacher is renowned historian Patrick Griffin. Patrick is the former chair of the Department of History at the University of Notre Dame. In 2021, he was named the Harold Vivian Harmsworth Visiting Professor of American History at the University of Oxford, perhaps the highest honor an American historian can receive. 

He joined us to explore “The Lessons of History” by Will and Ariel Durant, a book that has been repeatedly recommended to us over the years by some of the world's most compelling investors, leaders, thinkers, and builders.

To quote the late great Charlie Munger, who was also a student of Durant, “There is no better teacher than history in determining the future.” This 100-page book is a masterful distillation of Durant's 11-volume 10,000-plus page magnum opus, “The Story of Civilization.”

Whether you're looking to develop better pattern recognition in your work, or perhaps more existentially how to begin to even think about how and what to paint on this precious canvas that we call a human life. We hope you enjoy this class on “The Lessons of History” with the esteemed Patrick Griffin.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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Joys of Compounding is a property of Pine Grove Studios in collaboration with Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Joys of Compounding, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. 

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com).

Follow us on Twitter: @Buhrman_Rick | @PaulBuser | @JoinColossus

Show Notes

(00:00:00) Welcome to the Joys of Compounding

(00:01:17) The Importance of History

(00:04:14) The Historian's Toolkit

(00:07:17) Will Durant's Journey

(00:09:18) Lessons from 'The Lessons of History'

(00:23:08) Human Nature and History

(00:34:29) The Role of Economy in History

(00:38:01) The American Revolution in Context

(00:38:20) The Irony of National Exceptionalism

(00:39:00) Revolutions and National Belonging

(00:42:17) Geography and the Age of Revolution

(00:43:50) Human Ingenuity and Overcoming Geography

(00:45:53) The Role of Common People in History

(00:47:12) The Immigrant Experience and Personal Reflections

(00:50:49) Yankee Sullivan: A Prizefighter's Tale

(00:55:55) Boxing as a Metaphor for Human Nature

(00:58:49) The Inevitability of War

(01:03:10) The Concept of Progress

(01:07:14) The Power of Compounding in History