Customer Reviews

Heroes of History: A Brief History of Civilization from Ancient Times to the Dawn of the Modern Age

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Will Durant's "Heroes of History" is the product of many years of dutiful scholarship; and it provides a brilliant panorama of History's greatest figures from ancient times to the dawn of the Modern Era. Durant's composite sketch of history, from Iknahton to Pope Paul III, from Confucius to Christ, from Socrates to Bacon, from Sophocles to Shakespeare, from Pericles to Lorenzo de' Medici, covers all the vicissitudes and periods in history necessary for an understanding of Western Civilization. Although, as may be seen from some of the people listed above, Durant not only treats Western Civilization but briefly touches on Eastern Civilization as well, making this work magnificent in its scope. For a good general introduction--and basically for a summary of Durant's famed "Story of Civilization--to the most influential movements and famous personages in history, this work will be a definite reward.

This highly readable book of history is a group of essays written by renowned historian Will Durant. This book is more than a synopsis of his earlier, well-known series written with his wife Ariel.

This makes excellent reading for the would-be history-buff or for someone who wants to understand how the human race has gotten to the point it's at today.

I cannot emphasize enough how easy-to-read this text is and, yet, the details that bring history alive have not been boiled down into pablum.

This is another book from Durant, which brings his Civilization series to the popular audience. He show the reader the major themes of history through the lives of some of its most influencial figures.

Some of the major topics include: ancient China (Confuscious), ancient Egypt (the Pharoahs), the Old Testament (the Prophets) classical Greece (Plato), the Roman Empire (the Emperors), the New Testament(Christ), the Renaisance (da Vinci), the Catholic Church (the Popes), the Reformation (Luther), and the scientifc revolution(Bacon).

As always, reading Durant is a humbling experience, to learn how the debates and trials of modern times have been played out countless times before in our past. This is a good book, but I prefered Will and Ariel's book "The Lessons of History".

Will Durant pushes the proverbial elephant into a telephone booth with his posthumously published book on the history of civilization, "Heroes of History." Durant states, "I will study history to find out what man is." Clearly this is not an in-depth look, but an introduction to history. To reach beneath the surface, dive into Durant's eleven-volume series, "The Story of Civilization."

In "Heroes of History," the author covers a mind-numbing range of years. One may feel worn for having taken the journey. Durant's chapters are well crafted and concise, conveying the high and low points of humankind deftly. He expounds on China, India, and the Egyptians. He tells "brave stories of noble women and great men." In a nutshell we are given the essence of Confucius, Buddha, Jesus, Shakespeare and numerous others who have been an integral part of civilization.

Durant's enthusiasm for history as a conduit to understanding man and imparting wisdom leaps off every page. His writing encourages us to visit the "veritable City of God" where giants like Nietzsche, Leonardo da Vinci, Martin Luther, Socrates and so on are offering their incredible legacy.

Bohdan Kot

When I was a boy I remember my father receiving the complete Story of Civilization series by Will Durant and his enthusiasm for them, and for the man. To my impressionable young self the books became tinged with a sense of awe and power until they seemed like religious icons. It was like we had a piece of the Shroud of Turin or something equivalent. In these books was....everything. The entire history of the world. That was so amazing. Yet even more amazing to my eight year-old mind was the fact that ONE man knew everything. And he wrote it down! How can one man know everything? The entire and complete history of the world? That was pretty impressive to my young self and it is still pretty impressive to my middle-aged self. I was a little young at 8 years old to tackle the Story of Civilization, and my dad wasn't too keen on me thumbing through his treasures, but I decided that someday I would read those books. I recalled that resolve a few months ago and decided to order the Story of Civilization from Amazon. I was disappointed to find that I can't get hardback versions right now, and I don't see how they could ever work as paperbacks, so I'll have to keep haunting garage sales and used bookstores for now.

I have always thought that I should someday like to write a book about heroes through history, those men and women who through their wisdom, compassion, character and their heroic actions or nature have influenced the world for the better. I was somewhat disappointed when I was looking for the History of Civilization hardbacks to discover that Will Durant had already written Heroes of History. Darn it. But I will probably never get around to it and I was sure Mr. Durant could do a better job anyway so I just ordered his version.

Apparently Mr. Durant made a number of audio essays in the seventies in a prescient anticipation of books on tape. These audio tapes were condensed lectures meant to inform, educate, and entertain the public and to be more accessible to the general public than the Story of Civilization books which are somewhat formidable and daunting to your average American and to my 8 year old self. Mr. Durant adapted those audio tapes later into what amounts to a very condensed and abridged version of his larger work. Essentially he cut the complete version of his Story of Civilization from what must be about 20,000 pages down to 300. That is this book. It is not what I thought it was though. I was hoping that he had picked what he considered the 100 most heroic figures in history and written their stories.

Despite this book not being what I thought it was, I did sit down and read most of it today. I am of mixed minds on this book. On the one hand the man is a genius, writes extremely well (particularly so since he was over ninety when he drafted this book), and he is easily readable, clear, and thought-provoking. I did not intend to read the whole book today, but I kind of just kept going, even when I didn't mean to do so, which is a testament both to his skill and the fact that his writing is interesting as well as informative.

On the other hand, you can't really condense the Story of Civilization to 300 pages and when you try you run the risk of having to leave out whole swathes of history and even critical information about the periods you do talk about. I understand the problem though. He is trying to teach as much as he can to someone in 300 pages before that someone loses interest and wanders away. The book is also a little choppy because the chapters are actually adapted from the audiotapes and there are segues which, while they may work fine in a fireside chat context, are more than a little jarring in book format.

So, in my humble opinion, Durant is a genius and a pleasure to read, even compellingly readable, but this book is not what I thought it was (that's assuredly my fault for not reading the description and just leaping to a conclusion from the title) and I am not sure how well this book actually works. I actually want to read his entire work and always have, and reading this kind of choppy overview just confirmed that desire even more. Durant is great, I am going to read the whole history (my dad didn't, hah!), and I am going to love it. But since I am going to do the whole thing I really don't need the condensed version which, through no real fault of Durant's, just doesn't work that well. There is just no way to put the whole history of the world in 300 pages, so you have to leave things out, and as soon as you do that people are going to start second-guessing you about your editorial decisions. For example, I can't figure out why 12th century troubadors are worthy of making the cut but Leonidas and the Byzantine and Ottoman empires do not.

My advice: buy the whole history not the condensed version. If you don't want to do the entire Story of Civilization with me then this is a fine and compelling introduction to Durant. Just be warned that it isn't really about heroes, and that at 300 pages you are going to miss out on a lot of history but what you do get is fascinating and very readable.

This is a great short version of the history of civilization by Will Durant who was probably the most outstanding historian/philosopher of the 20th century. If you would enjoy a review or a quick education, this is the book to read. I enjoyed it immensely. And, for an even easier education on what I would call the "philosophy of history", I know I enjoyed, and think you will also enjoy, Norman Thomas Remick's "West Point: Character Leadership Education, A Book Developed From The Readings And Writings Of Thomas Jefferson".

I have never read his acclaimed Story of Civilization series in its entirety. I have however glanced through them from time to time to look up information. The book entitled "Rosseau & Revolution" was instrumental for me when I wrote my final paper for my B.A. in History. I decided to pick this up because I was not yet ready to commit myself to the 11 volume set. I figured this was a good starting point to get an idea of whether or not I would enjoy the larger work.

What needs to be understood is that this is NOT a condensed version of the Story of Civilization. It does follow the time arc of the Story of Civilization. It has a completely different aim. This book focuses on the individuals of civilization. He starts off with the Eastern Philosophers such as in his words "the boy called Siddartha Gautama" and finishes with the great Shakespeare. Now, don't get me wrong, a book of this size can never do justice to the individuals written about here whether it is Virgil or Leonardo and so forth. But this book was not intended to be for anyone but the general reader. He paints a wonderful picture of the achievements of the various individuals he discusses. His love for history is abundantly clear in his writing.

The only thing that kept me from giving it a perfect 5 star rating is that the book is not finished, nor will it ever be. Durant was unable to finish the final 2 chapters before his death. Second, while his literary style is unparalleled among writers of history, the writing feels a bit more disjointed as the book moves towards the later chapters. I suspect he probably was planning to polish the writing a bit more until he ran out of time. But the overall quality of the information presented here does not lose its importance. It's more of a personal criticism on my part.

For anyone with an interest in world history or curiosity about Will Durant, this is a highly recommended book. There was no one who could paint such a vivid picture of history like Will could.

One does not read Will Durant; one feels him. So vividly do the heroes come alive through words that one senses their presence, their vitality, their verve. Throw stones at some generalizations, but still take away images of history that put some ashcan writers of today in their proper receptacles.
One yearns for more. Indeed, Heroes of History is an introduction, a précis, an anchoring preamble to meet those heroes in the real, in their own words and images. It will be good to return to the poignant poetry of Tagore, the sufferings of Job, the sensuous colors of artists, the corridors of philosophy, too long laid aside in the rush of living. Durant does that to you: his semantic cadences reawaken the desire to read more.
One can only pause and say of this book: authentic tidings of persons who for good or evil, have left their mark.

Will Durant had the intellect of a scholar, wisdom of a pragmatist, heart of an artist, and writing skill of a poet. As a result, this book is a uniquely rewarding overview of the history of the world up to the early 1600s, with emphasis on Western civilization. The book has been described as a mere "introduction" to history, or a condensed summary of his multi-volume opus, but the truth is that there's plenty of detail here, and more importantly the book is dripping with insight. Indeed, this book is an education in itself which warrants careful re-readings on a periodic basis. And yes, Durant offers plenty of strong opinions and thus departs from the conservative academic mold, but his opinions are deeply well informed and therefore merit careful consideration. Needless to say, very highly recommended!

The well-known author of the last century, Will Durant, died in 1981. This manuscript was found only a year ago practically in its completed form. It is a treasure of the literary world. Durant's oeuvre during his lifetime was an eleven-volume series entitled The Story of Civilization, where he focused on an age in each book and gave history lesson that had never really been given before with this Herculean collection.

The result was a most unique series which had the unintended effect of appearing too daunting to average readers with its great size. So in the seventies Durant began working on a single word that would condense the eleven volumes into one book, with twenty-two chapters on specific ages and people in the history of civilization. While he was writing chapter twenty-two, he died shortly after the death of his wife. The manuscript disappeared and was not discovered until 2000. Heroes of History is a book with a hundred history classes in just 350 pages, a gem that any history buff should own.

Originally published on May 13th 2002.

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