Volume 14: Universal History (1955)

Four 1-hour lectures, all that remains of the original course.

But you actually believe that action is mute, and that words are just words. The whole history of the human race, as we shall see now, is a very wonderful way of words coming true and facts becoming mere words.

—February 15, 1955

There are several lecture series with this title.

All of them have the same premise as Out of Revolution, in that they seek to express the unity of history. But here Rosenstock-Huessy proclaims more than the unity of the 1,000 years of European history–he argues for the movement of the spirit through the entire history of mankind, “from Adam to the last judgment.” Our own story is told through the lives of our revolutionary ancestors: the tribes, the astrological empires, the Jews, and the Greeks, all of whom are honored not only for their enduring and continuing contributions to that history, but for having once and for all broken new ground.

The surviving lectures of this version of the course consist of an introduction to history, with special emphasis on the importance of holidays, calendars, and the formal articulation of events.