The Story of Civilization Series Introduction

[@benjaminbbrown]

Nice review. I read Will and Ariel Durant’s much shorter “The Lessons of History” at 128 pages and felt satisfied. Haha.

[@KristaAnielDuncan]

It is an impressive set of books to have.

[@ingwerschwensen8115]

When it was time to clean out our parents' house after my mom unfairly had to follow our father much too early (damn aneurysm) the question arose which books I could afford spatially to preserve and take home with me into an already packed apartment. So, although "outdated", to say the least, I picked among a few others with sentimental value a full set of my parents' German language edition of the Durants' Story of Civilization; this being the 32-volume set from Ed. Rencontre (Lausanne). I had in my youth actually read the first of the three-volume "Caesar and Christ" (after as a boy being in thrall to Taylor Caldwell's melodramatic "Pillar of Iron" about Cicero - all in German, of course, reading mostly English language texts/ books for entertainment or for work naturally came later.) Since then I've only read the first of the "Renaissance" volumes. But I'm still determined to go back for more. Because, as you rightly state "The strengths of this book series are myriad." (4:16) Thanks for this pleasant reminder. ALTHOUGH: you really should have mentioned Ariel Durant's role as a full-fledged co-author in her own right. Not for nothing they were both awarded the Pulitzer for "Civilization" in 1968. Also the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 by Gerald Ford, which I've just learned from Wikipedia.

[@SpencerReadsEverything]

Did I not mention Ariel as an author in the later books? Perhaps I talk about it more in my review of the first book. However, I did not mention the Medal of Freedom, because I didn't know that. Thank you for your comment.

[@sbaileyduncan]

Nothing makes me feel smarter than reading this whole series. What do you think?

[@benjaminbbrown]

I think this series is icing on the cake for you Spencer! You have many other very solid reasons for feeling smart.