Tragedy and Hope?
“While an undergrad at Georgetown Bill Clinton along with 700 other undergrads took a course from istorian Carroll Quigley. Bill got a B. That wasn’t bad. Half the class got D’s or worse. It must have been a very good class for them to be willing to “pay” for it like that. Bill was inspired by Carroll’s teachings, going so far to credit him during his 1992 nomination acceptance speech. How many historians get national exposure like that? Not many.
The late Quigley’s main book is Tragedy and Hope,a history of the Western world since 1890. It is quite to my liking. Most history is a series of biographies of great men who allegedly bent the world to their will. I think that in modern democracies more often leaders are figureheads whose role is to sell to the public the unpalatable programs of the powerful. The true powers are behind the scenes, not subject to elections or public scrutiny. Money is the power to direct human effort. Big money directs big efforts. Big efforts often succeed.“