Status Updates From The Story of Civilization, ...

"The good government & cultural patronage that had adorned Athens in the age of Peisistratus were continued now with equal unity & decisiveness ...but also with the full...consent of a free citizenship. History through [Pericles] illustrated again the principle that liberal reforms are most ably executed & most permanently secured by the cautious & moderate leadership of an aristocrat enjoying popular support" (249).

"The Greco-Persian War was the most momentous conflict in European history, for it made Europe possible. It won for Western civilization the opportunity to develop its own economic life - unburdened with alien tribute or taxation - and its own political institutions, free from the dictation of Oriental kings. It won for Greece a clear road for the first great experiment in liberty..." (242).

Second year second volume. I decided to read through all 11 by reading one volume a year. These are big books, lots of pages but the information/history provided is great at least in my opinion.