When Baron Pierre de Coubertin traveled back to Greece for the last time in 1927—two years after he retired from the IOC—he spoke at a conference at the Academy of Athens, delivering a passionate message “On the Transformation and Spread of Historical Studies: Their Character and Consequences.”  He had just finished writing a four-volume Universal History of the World, and was in fine form as he addressed the gradual progress humanity had achieved generation after generation.

“Anyone who studies history as a whole must conclude, first, that humanity is taking small steps toward a better world; second, that what it achieves is extremely fragile and may break down at any moment; and third, that the continuity and coordination of the efforts of one generation with those of the next are the only things capable of integrating what has been accomplished.”