Understanding History & Other Essays is a short book containing several essays by the 20th c. philosopher, Bertrand Russell. They vary in length and subject matter and some are of more interest than others. Understanding History, the title essay is perhaps the best known and the one I will concentrate on in this review. In it, he makes it clear that his interest is not as an historian but as someone who loves the subject:

My subject is history as a pleasure, as an agreeable and profitable way of spending leisure as an exacting world may permit

For Russell, history can be divided into two types: history in the large and history in the small

History in the large helps us to understand how the world developed into what it is; history in the small makes us know interesting men and women, and promotes a knowledge of human nature

Russell seems to give little credence to history in the large which he claims is

actuated by a desire to demonstrate some “philosophy” of history; they think they have discovered some formula according to which human events develop

It is history of the small that Russell seems to consider the proper purpose of history- the story of great men of genius who, according to him, are responsible for progress. And it is clear that, when he talks about men of genius he means men and mostly men of western civilization. Women and people of other civilizations factor little in his history and, when they do, not favourably.

Written in 1943, this essay gives an interesting account of what one of the most prominent philosophers of the first half of the 20th c thought about history and its study. His attitudes about women and race are, perhaps surprisingly (or maybe not) not that unusual for the time period.

There have been criticism of this essay that it clearly demonstrates Russell’s belief in Eugenics. That he did is also perhaps not surprising given the influence of Eugenics on the ‘great men of genius’ of the times whether in science, education, or government including fascist governments. It was one of the prevailing ‘scientific’ theories of the early 20th c., influencing not only the Nazis but Margaret Singer and her philosophy of planned parenthood and the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment among other things and Russell, despite his own genius, was a product of his time. It should be noted that, in later years, he would become a vocal critic of Eugenics.

It has always been my understanding of history that it is, at its most basic level, the recorded account of mankind’s past or, to quote Edward Hallet Carr, it is ‘a dialogue between the present and the past’. It is, simply put, the story of us since we first put stylus to papyrus and said ‘we were here’. As such, I am not sure I would recommend Understanding History as an introduction to understanding history; I would, however, recommend it to anyone interested to understand the attitudes of the time towards race and gender as espoused by one of the greatest men of genius of the time. ( )

The long title essay is a potboiler written during ww2. It does not merit reprinting. ( )