William James Durant (; November 5, 1885 – November 7, 1981) was an American writer, historian, and philosopher. He became best known for his work '' The Story of Civilization'', which contains 11 volumes and details the history of eastern and western civilizations. It was written in collaboration with his wife,
Ariel Durant
Ariel Durant (; May 10, 1898 – October 25, 1981) was a Russian-born American researcher and writer. She was the coauthor of '' The Story of Civilization'' with her husband, Will Durant. They were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fi ...
, and published between 1935 and 1975. He was earlier noted for '' The Story of Philosophy'' (1926), described as "a groundbreaking work that helped to popularize philosophy". ''The details of this book appear to be wrong – see talk page''
Durant conceived of philosophy as total perspective or seeing things ''sub specie totius'' (i.e., "from the perspective of the whole")—a phrase inspired by
Spinoza
Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, ...
esoteric
Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas ...
specialties, and to vitalize it for contemporary application. As a result of their success, he and his wife were jointly were awarded the
Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction
The Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are awarded annually for the "Letters, Drama, and Music" category. The award is given to a nonfiction book written by an American author and published duri ...
in 1968 and the
Presidential Medal of Freedom
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, along with the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by the president of the United States to recognize people who have made "an especially merit ...
in 1977.
Early life
William James Durant was born in North Adams, Massachusetts, to
French-Canadian
French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fre ...
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
parents, Joseph Durant and Mary Allard, who had been part of the Quebec emigration to the United States.
After graduating from
St. Peter's Preparatory School
Saint Peter's Preparatory School ("Saint Peter's Prep" or "Prep") is a private, all-male, Jesuit, college-preparatory school located in Jersey City, in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States, within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark. T ...
in
Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.Saint Peter's College, now Saint Peter's University, also in Jersey City. Historian Joan Rubin writes of that period, "Despite some adolescent flirtations, he began preparing for the vocation that promised to realize his mother's fondest hopes for him: the priesthood. In that way, one might argue, he embarked on a course that, while distant from
Yale
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
's or
Columbia
Columbia may refer to:
* Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America
Places North America Natural features
* Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region i ...
's apprenticeships in gentility, offered equivalent cultural authority within his own milieu."Rubin, Joan Shelley. ''The Making of Middlebrow Culture'', University of North Carolina Press (1992).
In 1905, he began experimenting with
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
philosophy, but, after
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, he began recognizing that a " lust for power" underlay all forms of political behavior. However, even before the war, "other aspects of his sensibility had competed with his radical leanings," notes Rubin. She adds that "the most concrete of those was a persistent penchant for philosophy. With his energy invested in
Baruch Spinoza
Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, ...
, he made little room for the Russian anarchist
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin (; 1814–1876) was a Russian revolutionary anarchist, socialist and founder of collectivist anarchism. He is considered among the most influential figures of anarchism and a major founder of the revolutionary s ...
. From then on, writes Rubin, "his retention of a model of selfhood predicated on discipline made him unsympathetic to anarchist injunctions to 'be yourself.'... To be one's 'deliberate self,' he explained, meant to 'rise above' the impulse to 'become the slaves of our passions' and instead to act with 'courageous devotion' to a moral cause." Durant graduated from Saint Peter's College in 1907.
Teaching career
From 1907 to 1911, Durant taught
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
and French at
Seton Hall University
Seton Hall University (SHU) is a private Catholic research university in South Orange, New Jersey. Founded in 1856 by then-Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Seton Hall is the oldest diocesa ...
in
South Orange, New Jersey
South Orange, officially the Township of South Orange Village, is a suburban township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the village's population was 16,198, reflecting a decline of 766 (4.5%) fro ...
.
After leaving Seton Hall, Durant was a teacher at
Ferrer Modern School
The Ferrer school was an early 20th century libertarian school inspired by the anarchist pedagogy of Francisco Ferrer. He was a proponent of rationalist, secular education that emphasized reason, dignity, self-reliance, and scientific observatio ...
from 1911 to 1913. Ferrer was "an experiment in libertarian education," according to the ''Who's Who of Pulitzer Prize Winners''. Alden Freeman, a supporter of the Ferrer Modern School, sponsored him for a tour of Europe. At the Modern School, he fell in love with and married a 15-year-old pupil, Chaya (Ida) Kaufman, whom he later nicknamed "Ariel". The Durants had one daughter, Ethel, and a "foster" son, Louis, whose mother was Flora—Ariel's sister.
By 1914, he began to reject "intimations of human evil," notes Rubin, and to "retreat from radical social change." She summarizes the changes in his overall philosophy:
In 1913, he resigned his post as teacher and married Ariel Kaufman; they had two children, Ethel and Louis. To support themselves, he began lecturing in a Presbyterian church for $5 and $10; the material for the lectures became the starting point for ''The Story of Civilization''.
Durant was director and lecturer at the Labor Temple School in New York City from 1914 to 1927 while pursuing a PhD at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
that he completed in 1917, the year he also served as an instructor in philosophy.
Writing career
In 1908, Durant worked as a reporter for Arthur Brisbane's ''
New York Evening Journal
:''Includes coverage of New York Journal-American and its predecessors New York Journal, The Journal, New York American and New York Evening Journal''
The ''New York Journal-American'' was a daily newspaper published in New York City from 1937 t ...
''. At the ''Evening Journal'', he wrote several articles on sexual criminals.
In 1917, while working on a doctorate in philosophy at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, he wrote his first book, ''Philosophy and the Social Problem''. He discussed the idea that philosophy had not grown because it had refused to confront the actual problems of society. He received his doctorate from Columbia that same year. He was also an instructor at the university.
Little Blue Books
Little Blue Books are a series of small staple-bound books published from 1919 through 1978 by the Haldeman-Julius Publishing Company of Girard, Kansas. They were extremely popular, and achieved a total of 300-500 million booklets sold over the se ...
(educational pamphlets aimed at workers) and because it was so popular, it was republished as a hardcover book by
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publi ...
in 1926 and became a bestseller, giving the Durants the financial independence that allowed them to travel the world several times and spend four decades writing '' The Story of Civilization''. Will left teaching and began work on the 11-volume ''Story of Civilization''.
''The Story of Civilization''
Throughout their writing of ''The Story of Civilization'', the Durants strove to create what they called "integral history." They opposed the "specialization" of history, an anticipatory rejection of what some have called the "cult of the expert." Their goal was to write a "biography" of a
civilization
A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system).
...
, in this case, the history of the West. Not only would it describe the usual history of the Western world's wars, the history of politics and biographies of people of greatness and villainy, but also the history of the Western world's
culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...
, art,
philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...
, religion, and the rise of
mass communication
Mass communication is the process of imparting and exchanging information through mass media to large segments of the population. It is usually understood for relating to various forms of media, as its technologies are used for the dissemination o ...
. Much of ''The Story'' considers the living conditions of everyday people throughout the 2500-year period that their "story" of the West covers. These volumes also bring an unabashedly moral framework to their accounts, constantly stressing the "dominance of the strong over the weak, the dominance of the clever over the simple." ''The Story of Civilization'' is the most successful historiographical series in history. In the 1990s, an unabridged audiobook production of all 11 volumes was produced by Books On Tape and it was read by Alexander Adams (
Grover Gardner
Grover Gardner (b 1956) is an American narrator of audiobooks. As of May 2018, he has narrated over 1,200 books. He was the ''Publishers Weekly'' "Audiobook Narrator of the Year" (2005) and is among '' AudioFile'' magazine's "Best Voices of the Cen ...
).
For ''Rousseau and Revolution'' (1967), the 10th volume of ''The Story of Civilization'', the Durants were awarded the
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...
for literature. In 1977, it was followed by one of the two highest awards which was ever granted to civilians by the
United States government
The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...
, the
Presidential Medal of Freedom
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, along with the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by the president of the United States to recognize people who have made "an especially merit ...
, awarded by
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...
. The Durants received the Golden Plate Award of the
American Academy of Achievement
The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet ...
in 1976.
The first volume of ''The Story of Civilization'' series, titled ''Our Oriental Heritage'' (1935), is divided into an introduction and three books. The introduction takes the reader through the different aspects of civilization (economical, political, moral and mental). Book One is dedicated to the civilizations of the
Near East
The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...
(''
Sumer
Sumer () is the earliest known civilization in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. It is one of the cradles of ...
ia'', ''
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...
'', ''
Babylonia
Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c ...
'', ''
Assyria
Assyria ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the A ...
'', ''
Judea
Judea or Judaea ( or ; from he, יהודה, Standard ''Yəhūda'', Tiberian ''Yehūḏā''; el, Ἰουδαία, ; la, Iūdaea) is an ancient, historic, Biblical Hebrew, contemporaneous Latin, and the modern-day name of the mountainous so ...
'' and ''
Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
''). Book two is titled "''India'' and Her Neighbors." Book three moves deeper into the east, where the '' Chinese Civilization'' flourishes and ''
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
'' starts to find its place on the world's political map.
Other works
On April 8, 1944, while on holiday with some intimate friends in Carboneras, Spain, Durant was approached by two leaders of the Jewish and Christian faiths, Meyer David and Christian Richard about starting "a movement, to raise moral standards." He suggested instead that they start a movement against racial intolerance and outlined his ideas for a " Declaration of Interdependence". The movement for the declaration, Declaration of INTERdependence, Inc., was launched at a gala dinner at the
Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel
The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel is a historic hotel located at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California. It opened on May 15, 1927, and is the oldest continually operating hotel in Los Angeles.
History
The hote ...
on March 22, 1945, attended by over 400 people including
Thomas Mann
Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...
and
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her p ...
.. The Declaration was read into the ''
Congressional Record
The ''Congressional Record'' is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress, published by the United States Government Publishing Office and issued when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record Inde ...
'' on October 1, 1945, by
Ellis E. Patterson
Ellis Ellwood Patterson (November 28, 1897 – August 25, 1985) was a one-term Democratic California congressman. Born in Yuba City, California, he served as representative between 1945 and 1947. Patterson also served in the California State As ...
.
Throughout his career, Durant made several speeches, including "Persia in the History of Civilization", which was presented as an address before the Iran-America Society in
Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
,
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, on April 21, 1948, and it had been intended for inclusion in the ''Bulletin of the Asia Institute'' (formerly, the ''Bulletin of the American Institute for Persian'', then ''Iranian, Art and Archaeology''), Vol. VII, no. 2, which never saw publication.
''Rousseau and Revolution'' was followed by a slender volume of observations which was titled '' The Lessons of History'', which was both a synopsis of the series as well as an analysis of
human history
Human history, also called world history, is the narrative of humanity's past. It is understood and studied through anthropology, archaeology, genetics, and linguistics. Since the invention of writing, human history has been studied thro ...
.
Though Ariel and Will had intended to carry the work on ''The Story of Civilization'' into the 20th century, at their now very advanced age, they expected the 10th volume to be their last. However, they went on to publish a final volume, their 11th, ''The Age of Napoleon'' in 1975. They also left notes for a 12th volume behind, ''The Age of Darwin'', as well as an outline of a 13th volume, ''The Age of Einstein'', which would have taken ''The Story of Civilization'' to 1945.
Three posthumous works by Durant have been published in recent years, ''The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time'' (2002), ''Heroes of History: A Brief History of Civilization from Ancient Times to the Dawn of the Modern Age'' (2001) and ''Fallen Leaves'' (2014).
Final years
The Durants shared an intense love for one another as they explained in their ''Dual Autobiography''. After Will entered the hospital, Ariel stopped eating, and she died on October 25, 1981. Though their daughter, Ethel, and their grandchildren strove to conceal the news of Ariel's death from the ailing Will, he found out that she had died while he was watching the evening news, and he died two weeks later, two days after his 96th birthday, on November 7, 1981. Will was buried beside Ariel in the
Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery
Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park & Mortuary is a cemetery and mortuary located in the Westwood Village area of Los Angeles. It is located at 1218 Glendon Avenue in Westwood, with an entrance from Glendon Avenue.
The cemetery was ...
, in Los Angeles.
Writing about Russia
In 1933, he published ''Tragedy of Russia: Impressions from a Brief Visit'' and soon afterward, he published ''The Lesson of Russia''. A few years after the books were published, the social commentator
Will Rogers
William Penn Adair Rogers (November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935) was an American vaudeville performer, actor, and humorous social commentator. He was born as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, in the Indian Territory (now part of Oklahom ...
read them and he described a symposium which he had attended which included Durant as one of the contributors to it. He later wrote of Durant, "He is just about our best writer on Russia. He is the most fearless writer that has been there. He tells you just what it's like. He makes a mighty fine talk. One of the most interesting lecturers we have, and a fine fellow."
Writing about India
In 1930, Durant visited
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
to collect information for ''The Story of Civilization''. While in India, Durant was shocked by the
poverty
Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse
and instances of
starvation
Starvation is a severe deficiency in caloric energy intake, below the level needed to maintain an organism's life. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage and eventually, de ...
he witnessed, to the point where he took a period of time off from his intended goal to write a short book titled ''The Case for India'' about the "conscious and deliberate bleeding of India" by Britain. In ''The Case for India'', Durant wrote that "The British conquest of India was the invasion and destruction of a high civilization by a
trading company Trading companies are businesses working with different kinds of products which are sold for consumer, business, or government purposes. Trading companies buy a specialized range of products, maintain a stock or a shop, and deliver products to cust ...
utterly without scruple or principle, careless of art and greedy of gain, over-running with fire and sword a country temporarily disordered and helpless, bribing and murdering, annexing and stealing, and beginning their career of illegal and 'legal' plunder which has now gone on ruthlessly for one hundred and seventy-three years."
Reception and legacy
Durant fought for equal wages,
women's suffrage
Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...
and fairer working conditions for the American labor force. Not only did Durant write about many topics, he also put his ideas into effect.
He worked to improve the understanding of viewpoints between people and tried to convince other to forgive human beings for their failings and waywardness. He chided the comfortable insularity of what is now known as
Eurocentrism
Eurocentrism (also Eurocentricity or Western-centrism)
is a worldview that is centered on Western civilization or a biased view that favors it over non-Western civilizations. The exact scope of Eurocentrism varies from the entire Western worl ...
by pointing out in ''Our Oriental Heritage'' that Europe was only "a jagged promontory of Asia". He complained about "the provincialism of our traditional histories which began with
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...
and summed up
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...
in a line" and said they showed "a possibly fatal error of perspective and intelligence".
On the decline and rebuilding of civilizations
Much like
Oswald Spengler
Oswald Arnold Gottfried Spengler (; 29 May 1880 – 8 May 1936) was a German historian and philosopher of history whose interests included mathematics, science, and art, as well as their relation to his organic theory of history. He is best k ...
, he saw the decline of a civilization as the culmination of strife between religion and
secular
Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...
intellectualism
Intellectualism is the mental perspective that emphasizes the use, the development, and the exercise of the intellect; and also identifies the life of the mind of the intellectual person. (Definition) In the field of philosophy, the term ''inte ...
, thus toppling the precarious institutions of convention and
morality
Morality () is the differentiation of intentions, decisions and actions between those that are distinguished as proper (right) and those that are improper (wrong). Morality can be a body of standards or principles derived from a code of co ...
:
More than twenty years after his death, a quote from Durant, "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within" appeared as the opening graphic of
Mel Gibson
Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an American actor, film director, and producer. He is best known for his action hero roles, particularly his breakout role as Max Rockatansky in the first three films of the post-apoca ...
's 2006 film ''
Apocalypto
''Apocalypto'' () is a 2006 action adventure film produced, co-written, and directed by Mel Gibson. The film features a cast of Native American and Indigenous Mexican actors consisting of Rudy Youngblood, Raoul Trujillo, Mayra Sérbulo, Dali ...
''. Durant also served as the history consultant for
Anthony Mann
Anthony Mann (born Emil Anton Bundsmann; June 30, 1906 – April 29, 1967) was an American film director and stage actor.
Mann initially started as a theatre actor appearing in numerous stage productions. In 1937, he moved to Hollywood where ...
's 1964 film ''
The Fall of the Roman Empire
The fall of the Western Roman Empire (also called the fall of the Roman Empire or the fall of Rome) was the loss of central political control in the Western Roman Empire, a process in which the Empire failed to enforce its rule, and its vas ...
''. The narration at the beginning and the end of the film is taken almost directly from Durant's work ''Caesar and Christ''.
On science and the Bible
In an article in 1927, he wrote his thoughts about reconciling the Bible and
evolution
Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...
:
In 1967 Durant wrote:
On history and the Bible
In ''Our Oriental Heritage,'' Durant wrote:
Selected books
See a full bibliography at Will Durant Online
* ''1917: Philosophy and the Social Problem New York: Macmillan.''
* ''1924: A Guide to Spinoza ittle Blue Book, No. 520 Girard, KA: Haldeman-Julius Company.''
* ''1926: The Story of Philosophy. New York: Simon & Schuster.''
* ''1927: Transition. New York: Simon & Schuster.''
* ''1929: The Mansions of Philosophy. New York: Simon & Schuster. Later with slight revisions re-published as The Pleasures of Philosophy''
* ''1930: The Case for India. New York: Simon & Schuster.''
* ''1931: A Program for America: New York: Simon & Schuster.''
* ''1931: Adventures in Genius. New York: Simon & Schuster.''
* ''1931: Great Men of Literature, taken from Adventures in Genius. New York: Garden City Publishing Co.''
* ''1933: The Tragedy of Russia: Impressions From a Brief Visit. New York: Simon & Schuster.''
* ''1936: The Foundations of Civilisation. New York: Simon & Schuster.''
* ''1953: The Pleasures of Philosophy. New York: Simon & Schuster.''
* ''1968: (with Ariel Durant) The Lessons of History. New York: Simon & Schuster.''
* ''1970: (with Ariel Durant) Interpretations of Life. New York: Simon & Schuster.''
* ''1977: (with Ariel Durant) A Dual Autobiography. New York: Simon & Schuster.''
* ''2001: Heroes of History: A Brief History of Civilization from Ancient Times to the Dawn of the Modern Age. New York: Simon & Schuster. Actually copyrighted by John Little and the Estate of Will Durant.''
* ''2002: The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time. New York: Simon & Schuster.''
* ''2003: An Invitation to Philosophy: Essays and Talks on the Love of Wisdom. Promethean Press.''
* ''2008: Adventures in Philosophy. Promethean Press.''
* ''2014: Fallen Leaves. Simon & Schuster.''
* ''1935: Our Oriental Heritage. New York: Simon & Schuster.''
* ''1939: The Life of Greece. New York: Simon & Schuster.''
* ''1944: Caesar and Christ. New York: Simon & Schuster.''
* ''1950: The Age of Faith. New York: Simon & Schuster.''
* ''1953: The Renaissance. New York: Simon & Schuster.''
* ''1957: The Reformation. New York: Simon & Schuster.''
* ''1961: (with Ariel Durant) The Age of Reason Begins. New York: Simon & Schuster.''
* ''1963: (with Ariel Durant) The Age of Louis XIV. New York: Simon & Schuster.''
* ''1965: (with Ariel Durant) The Age of Voltaire. New York: Simon & Schuster.''
* ''1967: (with Ariel Durant) Rousseau and Revolution. New York: Simon & Schuster.''
* ''1975: (with Ariel Durant) The Age of Napoleon. New York: Simon & Schuster.''
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...