MikePeterS’s Reviews > War and Peace > Status Update
MikePeterS
is on page 695 of 1350
“Man lives consciously for himself, but is an unconscious instrument in the attainment of the historic, universal, aims of humanity. […] History, that is, the unconscious, general, swarm-life of mankind, uses every moment of the life of rulers as a tool for its own purposes.”
— Mar 04, 2025 07:49AM
2 likes · Like flag
MikePeterS’s Previous Updates
MikePeterS
is on page 1300 of 1350
Tolstoy is out here dropping one of the craziest refutations of traditional models of history like it’s nobody’s business.
— Mar 21, 2025 05:14PM
MikePeterS
is on page 1079 of 1350
Tolstoy loves to model the flow of history as a physicist models the motion of a mechanical system. He recognizes how the change in momentum of a system (a battle, an election, an empire) cannot be due to one force alone (i.e. “great” men like Napoleon or Emperor Alexander I), but by the total sum of minute forces acting on the system (the individual wills of soldiers, officials, and everyone involved). COOL!
— Mar 15, 2025 11:14AM
MikePeterS
is on page 840 of 1350
I love how Tolstoy really goes out of his way to convince us that Napoleon was not the military genius that traditional history proposes. Just absolutely undercutting any sense of control that Napoleon and his aid-de-camps believed he had. IT’S FUNNY!
— Mar 09, 2025 11:28AM
