Welcome to Chapter Two in Dr. Peter Corning's Linked Essay Series Unite or Die. In Chapter Two, Dr. Corning examines Winston Churchill and Plato within the context of current American politics.
Despite controversy in 1974, La Storia became a best-seller, selling over 600,000 copies in Italy alone. Regardless of what the critics said, word on the street heralded this book for its poignant storytelling that was powerfully executed by the brilliant Italian writer Elsa Morante. Today this profound beauty of a book has endured and will continue to stand the test of time.
The famed British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli is reputed to have said "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." His wry comment (later quoted by Mark Twain) was intended to call attention to how easily we can be misled by spurious precision. Perhaps this is what inspired Darrell Huff’s classic small book, How to Lie with Statistics.
