Story of Civilization (Durant)

The first volume of Will Durant's Pulitzer Prize—winning series, Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization, Volume I chronicles the early history of Egypt, the Middle East, and Asia. In this masterful work, readers will encounter: • Sumeria, birthplace of the first cities and written laws • The Egyptians, who perfected monumental architecture, medicine, and mummification more than 3,500 years ago • The Babylonians, who developed astronomy and physics, and planted the seeds of Western mythology • The Judeans, who preserved their culture forever in the immortal books of the Old Testament • The Persians, who ruled the largest empire in recorded history before Rome • Indian philosophy, Chinese philosophers, and Japanese samurais

The second volume of Will Durant's Pulitzer Prize—winning series, The Life of Greece: The Story of Civilization, Volume 2 chronicles the history of ancient Greek civilization. Here Durant tells the whole story of Greece, from the days of Crete's vast Aegean empire to the final extirpation of the last remnants of Greek liberty, crushed under the heel of an implacably forward-marching Rome. The dry minutiae of battles and sieges, of tortuous statecraft of tyrant and king, get the minor emphasis in what is preeminently a vivid recreation of Greek culture, brought to the reader through the medium of supple, vigorous prose. In this masterful work, readers will learn about: • The siege of Troy • The great city-states of Athens and Sparta • The heroes of Homer's epics • The gods and lesser deities of Mount Olympus • The teachings of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle • The life of Alexander the Great

The third volume of Will Durant's Pulitzer Prize–winning series, Caesar and Christ chronicles the history of Roman civilization and of Christianity from their beginnings to 325 AD. In this masterful work, listeners will learn about:• the Etruscan civilization of ancient Italy• the birth of the Roman Republic and the beginnings of Roman law• the great reigns of Caesar and Antony• the people of Rome-the artisans, tradesmen, and scientists• the places of Rome's great empire• the beginnings of Christianity and its growth• the rise of Constantine and the fall of the empire

Surveys the medieval achievements and modern significance of Christian, Islamic, and Judaic life and culture. Like the other volumes in the series, this is a self-contained work that also fits into a comprehensive history of mankind. It includes the dramatic stories of St. Augustine, Charlemagne, William the Conqueror, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Richard the Lionheart, Saladin, Maimonides, St. Francis, St. Thomas Aquinas, Roger Bacon, and many others.

An engrossing volume on the Italian Renaissance by Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Will DurantThe fifth volume of Durant's acclaimed Story of Civilization, The Renaissance chronicles the history of Italy from 1304 to 1576. In this masterful work, listeners will encounterthe poets Petrarch and Boccaccio, the fathers of the Renaissance;the paintings, sculptures, and architecture of Milan, Florence, and Venice;the life and accomplishments of Leonardo Da Vinci;the Catholic church and the popes of Avignon and Rome;the politicians and philosophers of Italy, including the Borgia family, Julius II, and Machiavelli;the Italian Wars, the conflicts with France, and the country's decline.

An engrossing volume on the European Reformation by Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Will DurantThe sixth volume of Durant's acclaimed Story of Civilization, The Reformation chronicles the history of European civilization from 1300 to 1564. In this masterful work, listeners will encounterthe schism within the Roman Catholic Church and the formation of early Protestantism;the theology of Martin Luther and his societal impact;the rise of Humanism and the life of Desiderius Erasmus;the royal monarchies of England, France, Spain, and Italy;the imperial conquests of Christopher Columbus and the discovery of the Americas;the Bohemian revolution of Eastern Europe, the unification of Russia, and the rise of the Ottoman Empire;the teachings of John Calvin; andthe Counter-Reformation of the sixteenth century.

This seventh volume of Will and Ariel Durant's renowned series, The Story of Civilization, chronicles the history of European civilization from 1558 to 1648. The Age of Reason Begins brings together a fascinating network of stories in the discussion of the bumpy road toward the Enlightenment. This is the age of great monarchs and greater artists-on the one hand, Elizabeth the First of England, Philip II of Spain, and Henry IV of France; on the other, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Montaigne, and Rembrandt. It also encompasses the heyday of Francis Bacon, Galileo, Giordano Bruno, and Descartes, the fathers of modern science and philosophy. But it is equally an age of extreme violence, a moment in which all Europe was embroiled in the horrible Thirty Years' War-in some respects, the real first world war. This chapter in cultural history is one that can't be missed.

The Age of Louis XIV is the biography of a period (1648–1715) that Spengler considered the apex of modern European civilization. Central to the book is the "Sun King" himself, Louis XIV, who ruled France for over seventy years, longer than almost any European ruler in history. He is the subject of a character study that runs through seven chapters, revealing the flesh and blood beneath the purple and the crown.From France the narrative passes to the Netherlands, which shows the Dutch opening their dikes to save their land from Louis XIV and sending William of Orange to become king of England and a leader of the European alliance against Louis' hegemony.In England we contemplate the heyday of virtue under the Puritans and study the character of Cromwell. We see Milton's passionate career as part of the vain effort to prevent the Stuart Restoration. We find Charles II, the "Merry Monarch," attend boisterous Restoration plays, we skim the diaries of Evelyn and Pepys, and we follow Jonathan Swift from genius to insanity.Crossing the North Sea we trace the tragic heroism of Charles XII of Sweden and the attempt of Peter the Great to lead Russia from barbarism to civilization. We accompany the noble Sobieski of Poland as he rescues Vienna from the Turks. We visit Italy and Spain. We see the Jews proscribed and impoverished in Europe but rising to riches in Amsterdam and following Sabbatai Zevi in a desperate hope of regaining Palestine and freedom.All this forms the background for the "intellectual adventure" of the European mind in its passage from superstition, mythology, and intolerance to education, science, and philosophy, for this was the age of Newton, Leibniz, and Spinoza.The book ends with the sunset of Le Roi Soleil. Louis dying defeated and repentant, begging his grandson and successor not to imitate his taste for splendor and war, and followed in his funeral by the insults of the crowd.

The Age of Voltaire, the ninth volume of The Story of Civilization, is an in-depth examination of France and England in the first half of the eighteenth century. In this masterful work, listeners will encounter the English ideas that inspired the Enlightenment in France-skepticism, scientific experiment, constitutional government, "natural rights," and individual liberty; the salons of Paris, where the wits and thinkers of all Europe gathered to exchange ideas; the philosophes-intellectuals, playwrights, and poets who consulted and consorted with kings and queens; Voltaire himself-the incarnation of the Enlightenment and a devotee of reason who still defended religious faith; Mme. Pompadour, patron of the philosophes, who seduced King Louis XV and through him influenced French policy; the Augustan Age in English literature-Alexander Pope's poetry, Jonathan Swift's satires, and the novels of Samuel Richardson and Henry Fielding; and the growing parasitism of the aristocracy and rising power of the commercial class.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning volume on European civilization by acclaimed historians Will and Ariel Durant. Rousseau and Revolution, the tenth volume of the Story of Civilization, ranges over a Europe in ferment, but centers on the passionate rebel-philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the great exponent of the romantic impulse toward self-exploration and social revolt, who contended with the great rationalist Voltaire for the mind of Europe. Rousseau condemned civilization as a disease, glorified the noble savage, proclaimed to the world with equal intensity his own love affairs and the natural rights of man, and became the patron saint of the revolution and the worldwide social upheavals of two centuries.

An engrossing volume on European civilization by Pulitzer Prize-winning historians Will and Ariel DurantThe Age of Napoleon, the eleventh and final volume of the Story of Civilization, surveys the amazing chain of events that wrenched Europe out of the Enlightenment and into the age of democracy. In this masterful work, listeners will encounter the French Revolution-from the storming of the Bastille to the guillotining of the king; the revolution's leaders Danton, Desmoulins, Robespierre, Saint-Just-all cut down by the reign of terror they inaugurated; Napoleon's meteoric rise-from provincial Corsican military student to emperor and commander of the largest army in history; Napoleon's fall-his army's destruction in the snows of Russia, his exile to Elba, his escape and reconquest of the throne, and his ultimate defeat at Waterloo by the combined forces of Europe; the birth of Romanticism and the dawning of a new age of active democracy and a rising middle class, laying the foundation for a new era. |PrefaceBook One: The French Revolution, 1789-99Book Two: Napoleon Ascendant, 1799-1811Book Three: Britain, 1789-1812Book Four: The Challenged Kings, 1789-1812Part Five: Finale, 1811-1815