Pages: 508

Why does one need history?
This question opens this book. Nowadays, when most citizens of newly independent (and other) states feel somewhat fed up of history, when the danger of speculations on the mythical “great past” is proven, the answer to this question is the matter of life or death of our science. As Nietzsche rightly remarked, it is not life that must serve history, but rather history must serve life. Therefore, it must stop being what it used to be – a list of battles, outrageous crimes and obsolete economic systems. “The history we are interested in”, as sir C. Popper called it, must be able to reconstruct what is still valuable to us in the past: mentality and ideology, attitude to the outer world and to oneself, in other words – a typically human life style. And this is what our culture is about, as it is understood today. The art to live – this is what culture is, and the art of life typical to the people of the past is our modern History. This is the task set by the author when he started this book. Studying civilizations of classical antiquity and pre-colonial Orient, he tried to reduce the list of facts to the necessary minimum. Instead, he pursued to recreate the holistic world outlook of each of the civilizations reviewed by him: Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China, Greece, Rome and other. His special attention he pays to those aspects of these cultures which are still valuable today.
The book is meant for liberal arts students, as well as for all those interested in history and culture.

Editor:
Doctor of history I. V. Manzura

Secretary in charge:
Doctor of history R. A. Rabonovici

Reviewed by:
Doctor of history M. E. Tkachuk,
Doctor habilitat of history N. D. Russev,
Doctor of historical sciences I. V. Bruyako

Type-set:
Doctor of history L. A. Mosionjnic

Cover:
D. A. Topal