This seventh volume of Will and Ariel Durant's renowned 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 I of England, Philip II of Spain, and Henry IV of France; on the other, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Montaigne, ...

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 empi...

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 l...

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 mi...

The Age of Louis XIV is the biography of a period (1648–1715) that Spengler considered the apex of modern European civilization. "Some centuries hence," Frederick the Great correctly predicted to Voltaire, "they will translate the good authors of the age of Pericles and Augustus." Those authors are lovingly treated here: Pascal, Racine, and Boileau, Madame de S├®vign├®, Madame de la Fayette, and above all the philosopher-dramatist Moli├¿re, who so memorably exposed the vices and h...

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 Vi...

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 encounterthe French Revolution—from the storming of the Bastille to the guillotining of the king; the revolution's leaders ...

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 lawsthe Egyptians, who perfected monumental architecture, medicine, and mummification more than 3,500 years agothe Babylonians, who developed astronomy and physics, and planted the seeds o...

Originally published in 1926, ‘The Story of Philosophy’ profiles several prominent Western philosophers and their ideas, written by Will Durant, an American writer, historian, philosopher, and a Pulitzer Prize-winning author.In this enlightening and eminently readable book, Will Durant accounts the lives, ideas and views of various critical philosophical thinkers throughout history. Starting with Socrates and Plato and concluding with Friedrich Nietzsche, with twelve other distinguished ph...

The Pulitzer Prize–winning volume on European civilization by acclaimed historians Will and Ariel DurantRousseau 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 civilizat...

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 encounterthe 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...

Will Durant was an influential American philosopher who sought to offer a unified perspective of the whole of Western thought, as well as to present philosophical issues and problems in accessible language that could appeal to a broad audience. In Philosophy and the Social Problem, Durant tackles his greatest concern: that of reducing human misery by changing our social and political institutions.