probably the best 100-page book for serious thinkers, ever.

"Lessons of History", by Will and Ariel Durant, published 1968.

This is a request that everybody read this book.
The Durants researched 5,000 years of human history for nearly fifty years, and recorded their observations in this 102-page book.
It will widen the scope of your understanding, enlarge the frame of current events, and just maybe preserve American Democracy from the fate of so many civilizations before it.
There are some omissions because it was published nearly fifty years ago, before biodiversity and genetic diversity were revealed to be crucial. They did not foresee the collapse of Soviet Communism.
But the depth of perception and the range of observations are timeless.
They covered every aspect of civilizations-- economic, political, philosophical-- art, music, architecture, geography, culture, morality and more in ten profuse volumes of which I recently read vols. one, two and ten, titled: "The Story of Civilization". This is the best ammunition for analysis of current events I've found, and I long to share it and discuss it with others and maybe, together, we can save civilization. This includes you, dear Rob.
Everybody please read this short book and then read it again. Thanks.