The Age Of Reason Begins Part 1 Of 2

by Will Durant, Ariel Durant, Alexander Adams (Narrator)

Part Two Of Two Parts

If there is a linchpin to understanding modern European history, it lies in the period of religious strife and scientific progress between the 1550s and 1650s. In The Age of Reason Begins, Will and Ariel Durant bring together a fascinating network of stories in their discussion of the bumpy road toward the Enlightenment. This is the age of great monarchs and greater artists: on the one hand, Elizabeth the First of England, Philip II of Spain, and Henry IV of France; on the other, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Montaigne, and Rembrandt. It also encompasses the heyday of Bacon, Galileo, Giordano Bruno and Descartes -- the fathers of modern science and philosophy. But it is equally an age of extreme violence, a moment in which all Europe was embroiled in the horrible Thirty Years' War -- in some respects, the real First World War. Whatever the case, this is a chapter in cultural history you can't set aside.

"Mr. and Mrs. Durant are admirably lucid. . . . This is a book that can be commended very warmly." (The New York Times)

Audio Cassette

Published July 17, 1997

About the author

William James Durant was a prolific American writer, historian, and philosopher. He is best known for the 11-volume The Story of Civilization, written in collaboration with his wife Ariel and published between 1935 and 1975. He was earlier noted for his book, The Story of Philosophy, written in 1926, which was considered "a groundbreaking work that helped to popularize philosophy."

They were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for literature in 1967 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977.

Reviews

[Lorissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

If ever you wanted to know everything about everything, William and Ariel Durant would be the minds to turn to. Their eleven volume The Story of Civilization is an impressive, if not intimidating compendium of human history. The Age of Reason, Part One is as engaging as the others I have read in this series and have always found the writing and philosophy of this series beyond its time (published between 1935 and 1975). The humor with which Durant treats religious zealotry, the seriousness he ascribes to racial and sexual discrimination, and the attention he pays to all classes - lower, upper, artist, and so on - throughout, well, history.