“I cannot imagine anyone so erudite that they cannot learn a great deal from this monumental work.” —from the foreword by Richard SmoleyThe great series The Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant is one of the most monumental achievements in historical writing. In its eleven massive volumes, it tells the story of Western civilization from its origins to the age of Napoleon.This volume, The Climax of Christianity, is taken ...

Philosophy has often seemed like the castor oil of the disciplines: healthy, but never pleasurable, and best when swallowed quickly and forgotten.Although this view is understandable, it is regrettable. It isolates intelligent readers from some of the most important thought of Western civilization, much of which underlies our understanding of reality, whether we know it or not.Will Durant’s classic Story of Philosophy is a welcome remedy for this m...

We are the creations of history. We are also the creations of the history in this book. We cannot understand ourselves without understanding this history.The early modern era in Europe set the mold for the Western world today. It was a complex, tragic, yet pivotal time. It marked the transition between the dominance of the Catholic church throughout Western Europe and the present age of science, reason, and skepticism.The path through this transition was an...

Philosophy has often seemed like the castor oil of the disciplines: healthy, but never pleasurable, and best when swallowed quickly and forgotten.Although this view is understandable, it is regrettable. It isolates intelligent readers from some of the most important thought of Western civilization, much of which underlies our understanding of reality, whether we know it or not.Will Durant’s classic Story of Philosophy is a welcome remedy for this m...

“I cannot imagine anyone so erudite that they cannot learn a great deal from this monumental work.” —from the foreword by Richard SmoleyThe great series The Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant is one of the most monumental achievements in historical writing. In its eleven massive volumes, it tells the story of Western civilization from its origins to the age of Napoleon.This volume, The Climax of Christianity, is taken ...