Get the book on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BR1FFJLC

I wanted to offer this book free of charge to my readers, but Amazon stipulates a minimum price of $0.99. To mitigate it, I am offering free downloads of the e-book on my website. These files are hosted on Google Drive.

epub
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j26gSIBNZxSkLdC-3JA5jMDcd5WdP5lB/view?usp=sharing

pdf
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1traac7EhY742kEClvqr7xmlZ-CJ12nhz/view?usp=sharing

mobi
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WvoLWHSLTRi4QIDdOVBPsNwmkK9O5cbU/view?usp=sharing

Ad Astra Per Aspera (To the Stars Through Hardships) is available as a long-form article here: https://medium.com/@rs3/ad-astra-per-aspera-be7198657e3e  (Medium article is no longer available.)

About the book:

Are high achievers introverted or extroverted? Why is the diagnosis of autism rising in modern society? Why do societies rise and fall? What made the ancient Egyptians and Sumerians great? The book tries to answer these questions. It is my sincere hope that even if you don’t find the answers to these questions fully convincing, you may at the least gain some insights about how people and societies can thrive.

This book is based on the study of biographies of hundreds of famous people, historical and philosophical texts from the beginning of human civilization, and the analysis of diverse cultures around the world, including Native American, Chinese, Scandinavian, and even ancient Egyptian culture. In this book, among other things, you will learn how great societies of the past educated their children and how it allowed these societies to prosper. You might be surprised to learn how diligent the ancient Egyptians were in educating their children. In this book, school texts from 4,000 years ago provide a vivid narrative of the ancient Egyptians’ and Sumerians’ reverence for education.

You will also learn that introversion and bookishness are common among high achievers, be they political leaders, successful entrepreneurs, musicians, or others. Many such people might even be on the autism spectrum. As described in the book, since the end of Victorian times, notions about sociability in the West have undergone a significant change. The book describes how the retreat of high culture and the elevation of popular culture in the 20th century resulted in an inordinate emphasis on qualities like self-confidence and sociability in Western education and psychology. Many of today’s popular educational and psychological notions are anti-intellectual. They reduce children’s intellectual inclinations.

As the book explains, this trend also has serious consequences for human societies. Modern notions about sociability may explain a lot of adverse phenomena in today’s society, from children’s social and emotional maladjustment to the increase in political divisions.

This book is my labor of love. I hope you enjoy reading it.

Ouseph*

Ad Astra Per Aspera was originally published as a long-form article on the website Medium on February 18, 2017. The last major revision was on December 30, 2020 (though, a few minor updates have been made afterwards). 

Acknowledgment:
Copy-editing by Steve Knox (help4researchers.com) and others.

*Previously, I used the pen name RS.