A History of European Civilization in the Period of Pascal

The Durants succeed again in encapsulating the 17th century in Europe. They label it as the landmark century intellectually and scientifically and there is much truth to their assessment: the 18th Century, the "Enlightenment" and "Aufklarung" usually takes pride of place given the American and French Revolutions that dominated them and the general retreat of superstition and obscurantism that marred both Catholicism and Protestantism in the previous centuries. The Durants clearly show that all the 18th century did was develop themes initially sounded and expounded by 17th century thinkers such as Hobbes, Locke, Newton, Leibniz, Spinoza and the English Deists. These writers, and others, laid the bedrock for the various revolutions that shook Europe in the 1700 and 1800s and which have culminated in our own day: The Industrial, Political and Scientific.
Thematically, the book is erected upon the scaffolding of the Le Roi Soleil's life. They present his wars, mistresses, patronage of art, political autocracy as well as murderous bigotry. In my opinion, in their conclusion they let Louis off far too lightly. He was a man who countenanced, nay, actually encouraged and gloried not only in wars to dominate Europe--a common enough failing amongst the crowned--but in the Persecution of the Huguenots he left a blot on his record that, in light of the deadly century we just left and the religious fanaticism of 11 September, should sink his record in the humanitarian sense.
His vanity and thirst for "la glorie" (which he admitted himself to have been his worst failing) bankrupted France and left the Peasants in a savage and degrading poverty they hadn't experienced since the calamities of the 14th century. His refusal to use his power to actually reform government and tax the nobility mark his reign as regressive and disastrous in many ways. Still his impeccable taste in the visual and plastic arts-as opposed to his love of second-rate playwrights and third-rate opera--make him the supreme art patron in history. And the prestige and admiration that accumulated acted as a sort of bank that his incompetent, worthless successor cruised upon. Only under sixteenth Louis did the credit of the Sun King's name finally run out...
Still, the Durants must credited for making this error sparkle and shimmer with life and the lovely prose still entrances and pleases regardless of how dull or recondite the subject might be. Again, they are two of the greatest of all American writers. Someday, I hope, they will be acknowledged as such.

Will Durant's "Our Oriental Heritage" is the first of eleven volumes, which make for his superb macro-history the Story of Civilization. He begins with an analysis of the origins of civilization, and then moves on with a survey of Near Eastern civilizations (Sumeria, Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, Judea, and Persia). Durant focuses on all the Mesopotamian civilizations from their rise and fall, and deals with Egypt from the earliest kings to the death of Alexander. Then he moves into the Far East, where he handles Indian, Chinese, and Japanese civilization to the contemporary world of Will Durant. This excellent overview of Oriental culture will broaden any Occidental mans' perspective on just how his culture and civilization arose. It will allow him to question many western ideals and values and compel him to further understand these remarkable civilizations to which we are so highly indebted. Durant's work will, in a sense, place the eastern mind in the western man while reading through these pages, even if it is only for a moment. This work sets the tone for the rest, so get to reading and enjoy the ride from here to the Age of Napoleon.

Love the book, however; I am a little confused about a quote allegedly attributed to Herodotus claiming that Phoenicians traveled down the East Coast of Africa, discovered the Cape of Good Hope 2000 years before Vasco de Gama, went ashore and planted "corn" . Corn/Maize was not discovered until the Spanish went to the new world in the 1600's. What gives.

"Our Oriental Heritage" is the first book (volume) in "The Story of Civilization" series by Dr. Will Durant.

This text is packed with thousands of facts concerning "the nature and conditions of civilization," and records the cultural history, the economic and political organization, science, art, religion, morals, literature, philosophy, customs, and manners of ancient Sumeria, Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, Judea, Persia, as well as the sub-continent of India, China, and Japan.

Written with information compiled in the late 1920's and early 1930's, Dr. Durant does a fantastic job toward creating the monumental historical achievement that is "The Story of Civilization."

I find that Dr. Durant's style of writing is easy to read and understand. Example: "Aurangzeb converted a handful of timid Hindus to Islam, but he wrecked his dynasty and his country. A few Moslems worshipped him as a saint, but the mute and terrorized millions of India looked upon him as a monster, fled from his tax-gatherers, and prayed for his death."

A stunning work encompassing thousands of years! Five stars.

In this first volume of the history of civilization, Dr. Durant starts at our beginning. Most of us in the West have little idea of the impact the East had upon or civilization. This work changes that and through his wonderful prose, the author gives us a clear insight. The work is meticulously researched and presented in a fashion that is quite understandable. Please do not be put off by the sheer poundage of the book. At first glance, as one review pointed out, it can be quite daunting. I was quite amazed how fast the work went once I started to actually read the thing, rather than stare at it on the shelf. Will Durants multi-volume work should be required reading in all of our schools. Perhaps if it were, we, as a society, would have a greater understanding where we have been, ergo, have a greater understanding of where we are going. Overall, I highly recommend.

Though the central figure of this book is Louix XIV, this book is not about French history, but about European history as a whole.

The focus of this book is not on political and military history but on the history of religion, art, literature, science and philosophy. Or I can say politics is deeply involved in religion, art, literature and philosophy. I have never studied European philosophy before, and I thought it would be exttremely difficult to understand philosophy. But while I was reading this book, I found that phlosophy could be much easier when it was explained in a political context of the times.
And in this book English history was emphasized as much as French history. It is quite natural because Louis himself was deeply involved in and greatly responsible for the 17th century English history, and Thomas Hobbes and John Locke were Englishmen.
I believe that this book is the best book I've ever read. I'd like to read all 12 volumes of Will & Ariel Durant's "The History of Civilization" series.
By the way, I found 2 trivial mistakes in this book.
According to p 505, Halley identified another comet, seen in 1680, with one observed in the year of Christ's death; he traced its recurrence every 575 years, and from the periodicity he computed its orbit and speed around the sun. According to my own calculation, however, 575 x 2 + 33 = 1183, while 575 x 3 + 33 = 1758.
According to p 513, Mariotte amused his friends by showing that "cold" could burn: with a concave slab of ice he focused sunlight upon gunpowder, causing it to explode. To focus sunlight, however, we need a convex lens, not a concave lens.

Since college, I have wanted to own the ten volume The Story of Civilization by Will Durant. It simply was a purchase that a poor student or a novice pastor could afford. My father-in-law Melvin Gosser, found a set at a garage sale and purchased them for me as a Christmas present. Now, I have the daunting job of reading them. Will and Ariel Durant spent a lifetime in research and writing to complete this set, beginning with the publication of Our Oriental Heritage in 1935 and concluding in 1967 with Rousseau and Revolution. Each of these volumes are massive, between 800 and 1200 pages each.
I have to admit, I was tempted to skip over Our Oriental Heritage and begin reading where "real" history begins with ancient Greece. I am so glad I didn't. More than information, the Durants are delightfully politically incorrect. Any historian can give you the facts, a good one will do so with style, but a great historian gives himself. That is exactly what the Durants have done. As I started reading, I made myself review the first two hundred pages and began to underline delightful insights, and the beautiful prose of the authors.
Here is an example of their prose: "The scenes of your youth, like the past, are always beautiful
if we do not have to live in them again"
Example of their insights: "It is almost a law of history that the same wealth that generates a civilization announces its decay. For wealth produce ease as well as art; it softens a people to the ways of luxury and peace and invites invasion from stronger arms and hungrier mouths."
That is not to say that every chapter was spell binding, they were not. There were whole sections that I had to discipline myself to read. I won't fault the author's, however. Reading about ancient Persia, India and China, left me somewhat perplexed. My lack of knowledge of these cultures made it difficult for me to appreciate the author's insights.
As I read about the rise and fall of civilizations, I could not help but worry about our own. His insights seem to be coming true every day. Not a read for everyone, but if you have a long cold winter to endure, I can think of no better way to pass the time than by reading this book.

In this, the eighth volume in the landmark acclaimed series, "The Story of Civilization, Dr. Will & Ariel Durant have recounted the history of Europe's great age of kings.

The reader will be treated to a masterly exposition of: France's King Louis XIV. The dawn of modern drama, letters, and philosophy from Moliere, Spinoza, Locke, Hobbes, Berkeley and others. King Charles II of England. Isaac Netwon. Russia's Peter The Great. The War of Spanish Succession. And much, much more including plates and maps.

Written to stand alone or within the series, the Durants have written a prose of smooth flowing narrative that is easy to read and understand. In short, this unparalleled work is for everyone, both professional and layperson. I rate this work at five stars. Well done!

"A nation is born stoic, and dies epicurean." - Will Durant
*Our Oriental Heritage* is the first volume in Will and Ariel Durant's eleven-volume history of civilization from the Sumerians to the Napoleonic era - the work of a lifetime, or rather two of them, as its publication spanned no less four decades (1935-1975) and eight years were spent on these first nine hundred pages alone.
Although well integrated by Durant's systematic approach, *Our Oriental Heritage* is actually four books in one (or five, if you include the opening ninety-page essay on the nature of civilization): the first one deals with the Near East - Sumeria, Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, Judea and Persia - from the fourth millenium to the third century B.C. (275p); the second, with India from the Vedas to Gandhi, who was then still alive and, well, maybe not kicking (245p); the third, with China from the "Age of the Philosophers" to Sun Yat Sen (190p); and the fourth, with Japan from its mythical Shinto birth to the invasion of Manchuria (105p).
The organization of the book is more thematic than chronological. Though Durant does divide the histories of the various civilizations into periods and tries to follow their evolution, he limits himself to well-chosen historical highlights, seeking rather to understand the soul of each civilization by an analysis of its major cultural achievements. His focus is always on the big picture: as the title indicates, he is trying to assess the contribution of each major civilization to the progress of the human species (which he misleadingly refers to as "our race"), and never shies away from the kind of inter-cultural comparisons which our relativistic age stigmatizes (of Indian drama, he says for instance that "we cannot rank [it] on a plane with that of Greece or Elizabethan England; but it compares favorably with the theatre of China or Japan.")
Durant sees civilization as a complex of eight elements (economic, political, moral, religious, scientific, philosophical, literary and artistic) which serve as his conceptual framework to describe each era. His definitions of morality and religion reveal the most about his own outlook: the first he sees as merely instrumental to the cohesion and survival of the collective, defining it as "a law built into the spirit, and generating... that sense of right and wrong, that order and discipline of desire, without which a society disintegrates into individuals, and falls forfeit to some coherent state"; and the second he defines most skeptically and cynically as "the use of man's supernatural beliefs for the consolation of suffering, the elevation of character and the strengthening of social instincts and order."
Durant's own philosophy is not stated explicitly, but it is certainly less corrupt than his calling this discipline "that brave stupidity" might suggest. Of all the philosophical schools presented in the volume, he seems to have the most sympathy for Confucianism, which is perfectly understandable given his conception of the functions of morality and religion, while the Upanishads, he says, "are full of absurdities and contradictions, and occasionally... anticipate all the wind of Hegelian verbiage".
Maybe Durant could best be defined as "Voltairean": his project is reminiscent of the Encyclopedie, and seems to be his own answer to Voltaire, who wanted "to know what were the steps by which men passed from barbarism to civilization"; the ninth volume of the series, dealing with the Enlightenment, is reverentially entitled *The Age of Voltaire*, and the complete works of the philosophe (in 32 volumes!) are one of the fifty or so bibliographical references Durant specifically recommends for further study.
Unfortunately, Durant's Voltaireanism also extends to his politics, and he seems to have a peculiar fondness for so-called "enlightened despots", the measure of their enlightenment being dictated by what we might call the author's acadian liberalism. Each time he finds an instance of a well-oiled bureaucratic machinery, fixing prices, taxing every single profession, managing the whole economy and throwing in a few welfare measures, he is ecstatic. He does care about "democracy" and "civil rights", but he has absorbed so many marxist fallacies (about "exploitation" and "imperialism" mostly) that he cannot help praising the planned economies of the oriental tyrants and always ascribes the disasters they caused to the ill-will of their opponents or some unfortunate combination of natural circumstances. I guess he must have been very satisfied with America's "enlightened" despot of the moment.
But politics and economics are only two of the seven elements of civilization, and Durant's treatment of the other five is brilliant. My main regret, actually, is that he spent too little time on the histories of China and Japan (he himself apologizes for his "unwilling haste".) The Ming Dynasty is dealt with in one paragraph, as are all the classics of the Chinese novel, which Durant lists without any summary, euphemistically commenting that "they are recommended to the reader's leisurely old age." As for Japan, neither Miyamoto's *Book of Five Rings* nor the *Heike Monogatari* are mentioned. I also think Korea would have deserved a chapter of its own, instead of being treated as Japan's distant cultural father.
But a book that should have been longer is a book that deserves to be read. In the words of the *New York Times*, *Our Oriental Heritage* is a "magnificent and monumental" work, which will appeal to those who are bored with today's hyper-specialized and minutely detailed factual history, and believe with Kaibara Ekken, a Japanese philosopher of the 17th century, that "The aim of learning is not merely to widen knowledge but to form character. Its object is to make us true men, rather than learned men." (p869)

This book starts out fine with a well-deserved condemnation of the ethnocentrism of Western historians who write a history of Europe and call it a history of the world. The rest of the book deals with "our" Oriental heritage; but who are the "we" implied by the word "our"? It turns out, of course, that "we" are Europeans and the European diaspora. So the very first word in this book is ethnocentric. What Durant gives us is pretty much what your high school world history textbook used to give you circa 1960. Flipping through the remaining volumes of his Story of Civilization, he abandons all of his good intentions as proclaimed in the first volume, and devotes himself entirely to Western Civilization, narrowing his focus in the later volumes to France: Louis XIV, Voltaire, Rousseau, Napoleon. He gets Asia out of the way in the first volume and then makes a beeline for Greece, Rome, etc. You just know that even if he had lived to be a hundred, he would never have devoted volumes to Africa or Latin America or Australia.

Will Durant continues his wonderful series with this volume covering and important era which is quite often overlooked by our educational system. Much of what we are today has it's origins during this era. The Durants bring history to like with their wonderful text and use of language. These volumes, this one included, read more like a novel than a dry and dusty book of forgetable facts. I hate to use the word "lyrical" is describing Durant's style, but it is certainly close. The expierence of reading this volume, along with the others has been a wonderful expierence, one I would have not wanted to miss. Recommend this one, quite highly as I do the others.

Durant covers Western Civilization and European history with an in-depth clarity that no historian of the 20th century can match. If you like history, don't pass on Will Durant. With regard to this book, it does an excellent job of covering all aspects of European history at the time of Louis XIV. Durant delves far deeper than a mere political and social history of the times.

Will Durant's "Our Oriental Heritage" is the first volume in his eleven volume "The Story of Civilization". I picked a leather bound copy of the massive book from Easton Press. My initial expectation, not having read any substantive previews, was that the book would discuss primarily political, military, economic, and social history. After having completed the first volume, my expectations proved incorrect, to a certain extent. While these topics are covered, I felt a greater emphasis was placed on philosophy and religion. Of course, these two weighty subjects dominate many of the ancient civilizations discussed in "Our Oriental Heritage". Shame on me for having false expectations and not doing my homework.

I found the first half of the book more enjoyable and readable than the latter half. The chapters covering the Near (Middle) East, specifically Sumeria, Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, Judea, and Persia insightful and interesting, especially in today's world-wide political and social climate. Durant's coverage of these early civilization helps the 21st century reader frame some of today's long-standing disputes in the region and their historical backdrop.

Durant lost me in his chapters on India. Perhaps this was due to my relatively little previous exposure to Indian cultural, history, and civilization. Or, as another reviewer has mentioned, perhaps this is due to the fact that the book was written in 1935 and western civilization was just learning about this ancient civilization. His coverage of China was somewhat more engaging and interesting to me. Durant closes with a review of Japan's civilization up through the gathering storm of World War II. Here, he was able to recapture my attention and interest.

In all, a fairly decent read about civilizations that we in the United States are barely taught about in elementary school, middle school, and high school. He may have been better served by dividing the book into two volumes, one on the Near (Middle East) and another on East and Southeast Asia. However, I still plan to move on to volume II of "The Story of Civilization: The Life of Greece".

Oriental Heritage by william durant gives the reader an understanding of non-western history. It shows how these cultures ifluenced western culture and what they accomplished. The book is interesting because of the level of information about different groups like egyptians. It provides a valuable resource for anyone interested in history.

After a section on prehistory, Durant covers Sumer, Egypt, Palastine, Babylonia, and Persia up to Alexander, and covers India, China, and Japan up to World War II. Durant's "integrated" method gives a good mix of biographies, wars, cultures, and societies.

I regard the the store "Cloud-only" policy, which I was not aware of when I made the so-called purchase that turned out to be only a product lease, to be a scam. I want to read purchased ebooks that are resident on MY hard drive, not yours, when the internet is inaccessible to me. What happens to my "purchased" book if you go out of business?
Why is it that you put unwanted "junk" books such as Pride and Prejudice etc on my hard drive but not books I pay you for?

Durant fills the tome up with side people and issues that have little bearing or interest on the time. I think he just didn't know how to edit himself and was looking to make 'big volumes'. I have read all of the series and his earlier works up to the Renaissance, were much much better. This book is boring and I cannot understand how 4 volumes came out of the Enlightment, except this unrepetant liberal really loved Rationalism and the Napoleonic code. Unless you too are very liberal and want to view history that way pass this by. Out of the French books, Voltaire and Napoleon are the best but again no where near the intensity and interest of earlier ones.

Simply read 50 pages a week of the Durant series--preferably with one friend and co-conspirator--and, trust me, it will change your life forever. No other writer has the scope and ability for such a project: the story of our civilization. Eleven lifetime volumes.

I found 'Our Oriental Heritage' changed the way I looked at the world. I think it helped break me out of a parochial, anglocized paradigm of our society. I also think that the book illustrates that many universal truths transcend notions of class, race, time, and geography (although not necessarily gender). Also, I cannot overstate Durant's sense of humor and beautifully simple style.

I inherited the Durant books from my grandmother and have set myself the goal of reading all of them. OUR ORIENTAL HERITAGE was a great start. One warning: it might seem tedious or a little hard to grasp if you do not already know something about the cultures it chronicles. Also, remember, it was written in the 1930's, so portions of it seem "non-P.C."

I started this book in July, and just finished it now, half a year later. And that's listening to it as an audio edition [which goes faster for me with this type of book than reading]. And it's the first in a series of twelve.

I'm attracted to the concept of the book, "The Story of Civilization." But it isn't a story. It's a catalog.

History is more like the future than many suspect. Just as their are an infinite number of possible futures, and the further out into future you move the larger that infinity, the same is true of the past. Take a historic event like World War II. There are a dozen different ways that it can be explained, neatly fit into the expansive timeline of history. Not all of these stories compliment each other or even agree on fundamentals. Sure, there are certain facts we can agree on, like the date and location of certain battles. But history isn't about numbers, it's about reasons, and these are subjective.

This being said, I find Durant's "history" as lacking a certain compelling nature to its narrative. Maybe part of the issue is that I'm reading the book almost a century after it was written.

Durant uses many generalizations when talking about history, which is an issue with a history that's so in-depth. You'd think over the course of millions of words he could get down into some details. He does quote and summarize primary sources. But I think the reader would be much better off just reading these texts for themselves and coming to their own opinions rather than relying on Durant's Spark Notes.

History's such an exciting subject. I'm not sure how Durant's managed to make it quite so boring.

This has all been talk on style. What about content?

The move developed civilizations become, the more violent they become. That's the main thing you need to know. Oh, and there were likely advanced civilizations in prehistory, but by definition [they predate recovered written records], they're generally obscured from the modern perspective.

Soon I'll be listening to Durant's "Lesson's of History." I'll be interested to see if the shorter medium better suits his style.

The tone is horribly didactic, verging on sophomoric, and contains all the bad science and social views currently popular in 1935. It's useful only as a tool to see how mistaken an intelligent and well-meaning author can be.
The Durants improve drastically when they engage European history, and I highly recommend the later books in this 11-volume series.

@ hjk... Hello, I couldn't agree more with you concerning the Ebooks. Not only the problem you stated but where do they get off charging &160.00 or so for the purchase of the entire Ebooks series. C'mon now, I understand everyone is in business to make a profit, but that price far exceeds any reasonable fair exchange. I would think for that price one would forego the digital format and purchase a set in book form.

@ hjk... Hello, I couldn't agree more with you concerning the Ebooks. Not only the problem you stated but where do they get off charging &160.00 or so for the purchase of the entire Ebooks series. C'mon now, I understand everyone is in business to make a profit, but that price far exceeds any reasonable fair exchange. I would think for that price one would forego the digital format and purchase a set in book form.