The Complete Story of Civilization: Our Oriental Heritage, Life of Greece, Caesar and Christ, Age of Faith, Renaissance, Age of Reason Begins, Age of Louis … Revolution, Age of Napoleon, Reformation by Will Durant (PDF)

Description

The Complete Story of Civilization by Will Durant represents the most comprehensive attempt in our times to embrace the vast panorama of man’s history and culture. This eleven volume set includes: Volume One: Our Oriental Heritage; Volume Two: The Life of Greece; Volume Three: Caesar and Christ; Volume Four: The Age of Faith; Volume Five: The Renaissance; Volume Six: The Reformation; Volume Seven: The Age of Reason Begins; Volume Eight: The Age of Louis XIV; Volume Nine: The Age of Voltaire; Volume Ten: Rousseau and Revolution; Volume Eleven: The Age of Napoleon

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐When I first started reading “The Story of Civilization” in college, the last entry in the 11-volume history –“The Age of Napoleon”– had not yet been published. Although Will Durant wrote many works of history and philosophy, he is best known for “The Story of Civilization,” published between 1935 and 1975. The latter volumes were written in collaboration with his wife Ariel Durant.I was working on a double degree of astronomy and physics in college, and the only formal, classroom history I had time for were classes on the Old and New Testaments. So it was Will Durant who rounded out my education in history and philosophy. He liked to write about what I thought of as the benevolent side of human interaction–the artists, scientists, philosophers, and leaders who tried to advance rather than loot and destroy the civilizations they inherited or conquered. There was always a hint of dismay in his writing about the destructive side of human endeavor. He unified and humanized the story of civilization for me, and I read these volumes over and over again. They helped me get through the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the pointless war in Vietnam, and my own more personal tragedies, by taking the long and basically optimistic view of human endeavor.Will and Ariel Durant were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1968 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977. According to Wikipedia, “‘The Story of Civilization’ is the most successful historiographical series in history. It has been said that the series ‘put Simon and Schuster on the map’ as a publishing house.” I owe these authors my own debt of gratitude for their excellent overview of our struggle to civilize ourselves. Will Durant was our modern-day Gibbon, and just as quotable, although ultimately more humane and less interested in the scandalous side of human nature.NOTES on the Kindle version: you won’t be able to download “The Story of Civilization” onto your Kindle using the same method as for a smaller book. You will need to download it to your computer, first, then plug your Kindle into your computer via a USB cable and copy the downloaded file to your Kindle.

⭐Like other reviewers I have a long history with the hardcover set on my shelf. With aging hands and eyes, I welcome the Kindle edition. Mine is downloaded to my Kindle Application for iPad because of the large memory space. I love the Durant view of history…looking at the large picture, the influences of geography, philosophies, cultures and people rather than the list-of-battles histories. Almost everything is in the Kindle edition…illustrations, subdivided chapter headings and even the WONDERFUL INDEXES that are click-on usable. These are particularly important because the Kindle search is unbearably long (after 5 minutes “Aeschylus” was not found in the 2nd volume) because all volumes are apparently searched no matter where you are when you initiate the search. The problem is what is NOT included in the Kindle edition is the Table of Contents for each volume so there is no page # for the index…..The Table of Contents in the Kindle edition is merely a list (clickonable) of the volumes. In case anyone else out there loves beautifully constructed Indexes here is a list of the location numbers for each volume’s index:Vol I Our Oriental Heritage 24,737-29,593Vol II Life of Greece 47,627-52,830Vol III Caesar & Christ 70,201-76,401Vol IV Age of Faith 105,615-115,234Vol V The Renaissance 131,266-134,034Vol VI The Reformation 157,642-163,118Vol VII Age of Reason 179,970-185,731Vol VIII Age of Louis XIV 204,714-210,848Vol IX Age of Voltaire 232,009-238,702Vox X Rousseau & Revolution 268,412-277,368Vol XI Age of Napoleon 298,612-306,102The Durant’s made it clear that they were interpreting history and that time will bring new understandings…..most build on those that came before and that makes these volumes beautiful references for anyone loving history.

⭐After writing the most popular synopsis of philosophy in 1924, Will Durant had the courage, the audacity,and the independent financial means to dare to claim all of man’s history as his field of endeavor. He believed that the best understanding is a broad synthesis of all points of view. Then, he embarked on this Herculean task with single minded concentration. He already demonstrated a special artistic flare for distilling ideas into balanced and fair minded summaries. He had a rare gift for explaining complex ideas into elegant comprehensive witty statements. Time was his friend in sifting out what was of lasting import. Time was also his enemy in granting him less than fifty years to complete his task. It was a labor of love that he shared with his wife, Ariel. But, above all, it was his personal homage to the greatest expressions that human beings have been capable of. The emphasis has always been cultural rather than economic history. Climate and economic means have always only been but the limits to the freedom of man’s dreams of greatness. It was to these dreams of greatness that he devoted his whole life. At the end of his literary career, he received the honor of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. No one has ever deserved it more than him. He embodied that liberal ideal that our country was founded on. The more the reader knows the history, the more pleasure he will find in these volumes. Alas, so few people care about the past. But, this may be the specific remedy!

⭐This is a outstanding series of books with a thoughtful and well written perspective on human history. Elon Musk suggested them when asked on Twitter. He wasn’t wrong.

⭐A must for history, philosophy and theology buffs like me…just amazing this book 🙂

⭐I love history and history as it is written in these books is a glorious adventure!

⭐Received on time, at advertised,

⭐I feel so ripped off by the kindle version of this voluminous set. There is almost no table of contents to speak of, thus making this book impossible to navigate through. Who would omit this vital part of its original version and then ask money for this disaster

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