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SectionI
Civilizational Memory
Will and Ariel Durant
12 works359 hours
The historical backbone of the curriculum: the eleven-volume Story of Civilization together with its short synthesis. The Durants present civilization as a dynamic system in which religion, family, commerce, banking, war, philosophy, technology, law, art, institutions and exceptional individuals interact across centuries. Ideas become institutions. Institutions accumulate power. Prosperity generates complexity. Success creates capability, and also complacency.
015h
The Lessons of History
Will & Ariel DurantFR ?Phase 10238hOur Oriental Heritage
Will DurantFR ?Phase 30327hThe Life of Greece
Will DurantFR ?Phase 30427hCaesar and Christ
Will DurantFR ?Phase 30543hThe Age of Faith
Will DurantFR ?Phase 30628hThe Renaissance
Will DurantFR ?Phase 50737hThe Reformation
Will DurantFR ?Phase 50826hThe Age of Reason Begins
Will & Ariel DurantFR ?Phase 50929hThe Age of Louis XIV
Will & Ariel DurantFR ?Phase 51029hThe Age of Voltaire
Will & Ariel DurantFR ?Phase 51139hRousseau and Revolution
Will & Ariel DurantFR ?Phase 51231hThe Age of Napoleon
Will & Ariel DurantFR ?Phase 5Read against
Read the Durants as architects of a grand synthesis, not as final authority on any particular detail. Some scholarship and framing have dated. Their enduring value is scale.