Customer Reviews

Rousseau and Revolution: A History of Civilization in France, England, and Germany from 1756, and in the Remainder of Europe from 1715, to 1789 (Story of Civilization, 10)

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People "of a certain age" will remember when a certain book-each-month club offered a bonus to new members: LP's (yes, that long ago) of Beethoven's nine symphonies, a two-volume compact Oxford English Dictionary with magnifying lens, or the eleven-volume HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION by Will and Ariel Durant. I went for the OED, but fortunately, years later I glommed onto the Durants' wonderful set of histories, which chronologically track Asia and the Greco-Roman world up to the time of Napoleon using multiple but well-coordinated discussions of cultural, historical and intellectual histories.

How to describe? If a high-school course on Western Civ is an outline, and a college course is a survey, then these books are a personal guided tour down the groves of history by a very patient, erudite teacher (Will) and his wife/research assistant (and eventually co-author), Ariel. While it is the next-to-last volume of the series sequentially, ROUSSEAU AND REVOLUTION is a great start if you are just kicking tires: few people other than the Durants could document and explain so well the mixture of intellectual trends, cultural shifts and political upheaval that defines that turbulent era. It is "first among equals" and won several prizes. Not for nothing did the Durants spend 30 years traveling the globe for research material for the series and nearly another 40 to write it down and hone it for a general audience. (Sadly, death kept them from writing more volumes to bring the histories up to modern times.)

Will Durant was, philosophically, a culturally conservative man but not a reprehensible man. The very first volume of the full 11-volume set is OUR ORIENTAL HERITAGE, and other than the slightly quaint use of "oriental" to mean what we'd today style "Asian," his and Ariel's obvious appreciation and respect show through -- and tie us to later Europe. And while he wasn't a fan of "the proletariat," there are few histories that are so considerate of the reader and lack both cant and obscurity. Sometimes hard to find in these deconstructed times!

I don't expect those who read this "rave" will want to go out and invest in the full set, but start with any volume -- particularly ROUSSEAU AND REVOLUTION -- and if you enjoy the approach and the multiple takes on history, you'll probably want more. Not to scare you but I don't believe bomc is printing these any more; good used or new copies will make for great knowledge and good keepsakes too. I also understand that of late a "collectors" type book club offers the entire set all together. But unless you like the smell of slurried leather covers and don't mind paying a much steeper price, probably better to go with good used volumes through Amazon.

...continues the excellence of the series. Originally intended as the final book of the series, "The Story of Civilization", in ended up being the penultimate volume.

The Durants lucidly and eloquently summarize the philosophy, life and influence that Rousseau had on the 18th century and, indeed, continues to have to this very day. Rousseau may be regarded as the creator of the Left-wing sensibility. This may seem anachronistic and, in a sense, it is. Rousseau died before the French Revolution, which created the modern political division of Right and Left. Nevertheless, it is accurate to see him as the Fountainhead for relativism, communism, and the worship of feeling as opposed to reason (debased and emptied of all intellectual content this is now called building "self-esteem" by the modern leftist).

Rousseau created most of the modern ills of political fanaticism and airy, absurd idealism as the Durants so ably note.

The rest of the period is not neglected and vivid portraits are made of Frederick the Great, Catherine the Great, the Elder Pitt, Diderot, D'Holbach, Samuel Johnson and many, many others help this book to shine.

Awarded the Pulitzer Prize--which should have gone to the entire series as opposed to just this volume--this book gives the reader a complete (if necessarily synopsized) account of the End and Failure of the Enlightenment and how what Rousseau and Voltaire intended in their attacks on the social structure (Rousseau) and religion (Voltaire) lead to disastrous consequences in the French Revolution.

The writing sparkles with vivid wit, pith and lucid beauty. It is a book to be read for a lifetime and bequeathed to children. In an age where smarmy, intellectually empty, political fanaticism is attempting to erase the past in favor of the PC fantasies of the moment, the Durants offer a vivid account of the Truth. European civilization is presented here in all its glory and with all its warts. Slavery, religious fanaticism, exploitation and the horrors of the penal system and warfare are all presented here, in their proper place and in context. The modern academic community has attempted to destroy the ideal of context and balance. As long as these books are around, REAL history and historiography are available to anyone who simply opens a copy and reads it.

This is the tenth volume of Durant's Story of Civilization and his love for the great men and women of history shines through. My appreciation of history, philosophy and literature stems from reading these volumes. My reading list is heavily influenced by what is mentioned in this book.

As is his custom, Durant focuses on those events and people in history that have influenced our civilization. This volume focuses on France, England, and Germany from 1756 to 1789 (the beginning of the French Revolution). He also touches on the rest of Europe from 1715 to 1789. As can be seen from the title, Rousseau is the focus, contrasted with Voltaire in his previous volume.

This was the time of Rousseau, Voltaire, Kant, Haydn, Bach, Mozart, Casanova, Catherine the Great, Frederick, Goethe, Schiller, Boswell, Gibbon, Walpole, Samuel Johnson, and many other great figures in philosophy, music, literature, and politics. Durant did an excellent job showing how those figures impacted their time and still have an impact in our time.

It is interesting to note that this was intended be the final volume of this work, but since Durant lived much longer that he expected, he and his wife did one more volume on the time of Napoleon. I am just starting that final volume.

I highly recommend this book, and it should work well read alone, or as part of this series. This is great literature and teaches great lessons of history that I wish our current leadership would read.