the story of civilization by will durant

(On this note, it has to be said that historians have more than compensated since Will Durant wrote. He was also highly critical of the traditional emphasis on politics and war, which seem to make history into a record of crime, folly, and destruction, when in fact it is just as much, if not more, a record of accomplishment. He was, indeed, a master prose stylist-no small part of his appeal. He therefore favored a holistic approach rather than the reductive methods favored by the academicians, and wrote in a clear and friendly style that made the treasures of the past accessible, as opposed to the highly technical language found in the journals, which often seems purpose-built to impede rather than facilitate communication. At any rate, he saw himself as a communicator rather than an innovator, not as someone concerned with breaking new ground in philosophy or history. He devoted the rest of his long life to writing The Story of Civilization, which remains to this day one of a monument to history.īoth The Story of Philosophy and The Story of Civilization were conceived in opposition to what Will Durant regarded as the overspecialization and irrelevance of contemporary scholarship-a charge that we're certainly familiar with in our own time, and who knows, might have been current in the days of Pharaoh or Caesar as well. The Story of Philosophy proved immensely successful, and provided him with the financial independence to pursue his own interests.

But he also developed an interest in philosophy, which he studied at Columbia, and his original plan fell by the wayside. He was born to middle-class French-Canadian parents, educated by Jesuits, and originally intended to become a priest. Will Durant (1885–1981) was an American philosopher and historian who is best remembered for his still-classic introduction to philosophy, The Story of Philosophy (1926), and an 11-volume history of Eurasia, The Story of Civilization (1935–1975), which he wrote with his wife, Ariel (1898–1981). The present is the past rolled up for action, and the past is the present unrolled for understanding.

The story of civilization by will durant