Question

Hello!
1) I’m currently reading the book Philosophy in Pleasant Ways ((which, in my opinion, would be better titled “Atheism in Pleasant Ways”)) by Will Durant. What do you think of the book and its author?
On page 160 he writes: “But already Aristotle … classified woman as a stunted development, and interpreted her as nature’s failure to make a man. She belongs, like slaves, to a subordinate class, and is not at all fit for participation in public affairs. And this was also the view of the God of Israel, who grouped women and mothers together with the flock and the household in the last utterance of the Ten Commandments…. The Lord was made in the image and likeness of the Jews, who, like every warlike nation, saw woman as a defective creature, a regrettable necessity, serving for the time being as the sole source of supplying soldiers. No lights of joy were raised among the blemished Jews at the birth of a daughter; a woman who gave birth to a daughter was obligated to undergo double purification; and the youth, proudly bearing ‘the short version of the matter,’ namely his covenant with his God, regularly repeats in his prayer: ‘…who has not made me a woman, who has not made me a gentile.’ But the Jews are by no means exceptional in this respect; indeed, in various ways they stand at the forefront of the moral code of their times…..”
May our Guide for the Perplexed teach us how to stand firm against fiery statements like these.
2) I bought this two-volume book following your thought-provoking and inspiring books, so that it would open a window for me into the world of philosophy. I got to a chapter that really bores me, called “Philosophy of History.” Is there any point in forcing myself to read it? Is it important to know the arguments in this part of philosophy?