The Story of Civilization


The Story of Civilization, by husband and wife Will and Ariel Durant, is an 11-volume set of books covering Western history for the general reader.
The series was written over a span of more than five decades. It totals four million words across nearly 10,000 pages, with 2 further books in production at the time of the authors' deaths. In the first volume, Will Durant stated that he wanted to include the history of the West to the early 20th century. However, the series ends with The Age of Napoleon because the Durants both died—she in her 80s and he in his 90s—before they could complete additional volumes. They also left behind notes for a 12th volume, The Age of Darwin, and an outline for a 13th, The Age of Einstein, which would have taken The Story of Civilization to 1945.
The first six volumes of The Story of Civilization are credited to Will Durant alone, with Ariel recognized only in the acknowledgements. Beginning with The Age of Reason Begins, Ariel is credited as a co-author. In the preface to the first volume, Durant states his intention to make the series in 5 volumes, although this would not turn out to be the case.
The series won a Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1968 with the 10th volume in the series, Rousseau and Revolution.
The volumes sold well for many years, and sets of them were frequently offered by book clubs. An unabridged audiobook production of all eleven volumes was produced by the Books on Tape company and was read by Alexander Adams.

Series outline

I. ''Our Oriental Heritage'' (1935)

This volume covers Near Eastern history until the fall of the Achaemenid Empire in the 330s BC, and the history of India, China, and Japan up to the 1930s.
  1. The Establishment of Civilization
  2. #The Conditions of Civilization
  3. #The Economic Elements of Civilization
  4. #The Political Elements of Civilization
  5. #The Moral Elements of Civilization
  6. #The Mental Elements of Civilization
  7. #The Prehistoric Beginnings of Civilization
"The moulders of the world’s myths were unsuccessful husbands, for they agreed that woman was the source of all evil."
  1. The Near East
  2. #Sumeria
  3. #Egypt
  4. #Babylonia
  5. #Assyria
  6. #A Motley of Nations
  7. #Judea
  8. #Persia
"For barbarism is always around civilization, amid it and beneath it, ready to engulf it by arms, or mass migration, or unchecked fertility. Barbarism is like the jungle; it never admits its defeat; it waits patiently for centuries to recover the territory it has lost."
  1. India and Her Neighbors
  2. #The Foundations of India
  3. #Buddha
  4. #From Alexander to Aurangzeb
  5. #The Life of the People
  6. #The Paradise of the Gods
  7. #The Life of the Mind
  8. #The Literature of India
  9. #Indian Art
  10. #A Christian Epilogue
On the fall of India to the Moguls: "The bitter lesson that may be drawn from this tragedy is that eternal vigilance is the price of civilization. A nation must love peace, but keep its powder dry."
  1. The Far East
  2. #The Age of the Philosophers
  3. #The Age of the Poets
  4. #The Age of the Artists
  5. #The People and the State
  6. #Revolution and Renewal
On China in 1935: "No victory of arms, or tyranny of alien finance, can long suppress a nation so rich in resources and vitality. The invader will lose funds or patience before the loins of China will lose virility; within a century China will have absorbed and civilized her conquerors, and will have learned all the technique of what transiently bears the name of modern industry; roads and communications will give her unity, economy and thrift will give her funds, and a strong government will give her order and peace."
  1. Japan
  2. #The Makers of Japan
  3. #The Political and Moral Foundations
  4. #The Mind and Art of Old Japan
  5. #The New Japan
On Japan in 1935: "By every historical precedent the next act will be war."

II. ''The Life of Greece'' (1939)

This volume covers Ancient Greece and the Hellenistic Near East down to the Roman conquest.
  1. Aegean Prelude: 3500–1000 BC
  2. #Crete
  3. #Before Agamemnon
  4. #The Heroic Age
  5. The Rise of Greece: 1000–480 BC
  6. #Sparta
  7. #Athens
  8. #The Great Migration
  9. #The Greeks in the West
  10. #The Gods of Greece
  11. #The Common Culture of Early Greece
  12. #The Struggle for Freedom
"The realization of self-government was something new in the world; life without kings had not yet been dared by any great society. Out of this proud sense of independence, individual and collective, came a powerful stimulus to every enterprise of the Greeks; it was their liberty that inspired them to incredible accomplishments in arts and letters, in science and philosophy."
  1. The Golden Age: 480–399 BC
  2. #Pericles and the Democratic Experiment
  3. #Work and Wealth in Athens
  4. #The Morals and Manners of the Athenians
  5. #The Art of Periclean Greece
  6. #The Advancement of Learning
  7. #The Conflict of Philosophy and Religion
  8. #The Literature of the Golden Age
  9. #The Suicide of Greece
"As surprising as anything else in this civilization is the fact that it was brilliant without the aid or stimulus of women."
  1. The Decline and Fall of Greek Freedom: 399–322 BC
  2. #Philip
  3. #Letters and Arts in the Fourth Century
  4. #The Zenith of Philosophy
  5. #Alexander
"The class war had turned democracy into a contest in legislative looting."
  1. The Hellenistic Dispersion: 322–146 BC
  2. #Greece and Macedonia
  3. #Hellenism and the Orient
  4. #Egypt and the West
  5. #Books
  6. #The Art of the Dispersion
  7. #The Climax of Greek Science
  8. #The Surrender of Philosophy
  9. #The Coming of Rome
"We have tried to show that the essential cause of the Roman conquest of Greece was the disintegration of Greek civilization from within. No great nation is ever conquered until it has destroyed itself."

III. ''Caesar and Christ'' (1944)

The volume covers the history of Rome and of Christianity until the time of Constantine the Great.
  1. The Republic: 508–30 BC
  2. The Revolution: 145–30 BC
  3. The Principate: 30 BC-AD 192
  4. The Empire: AD 146-AD 192
  5. The Youth of Christianity: 4 BC-AD 325

    IV. ''The Age of Faith'' (1950)

This volume covers the Middle Ages in both Europe and the Near East, from the time of Constantine I to that of Dante Alighieri.
  1. The Byzantine Zenith: AD 325–565
  2. #Julian the Apostate: 332-63
  3. #The Triumph of the Barbarians: 325–476
  4. #The Progress of Christianity: 364–451
  5. #Europe Takes Form: 325–529
  6. #Justinian: 527-65
  7. #Byzantine Civilization: 337–565
  8. #The Persians: 224–641
"Historically, the conquest destroyed the outward form of what had already inwardly decayed; it cleared away with regrettable brutality and thoroughness a system of life which, with all its gifts of order, culture, and law, had worn itself into senile debility, and had lost the powers of regeneration and growth."
  1. Islamic Civilization: AD 569–1258
  2. #Mohammed: 569–632
  3. #The Koran
  4. #The Sword of Islam: 632–1058
  5. #The Islamic Scene: 632–1058
  6. #Thought and Art in Eastern Islam: 632–1058
  7. #Western Islam: 641–1086
  8. #The Grandeur and Decline of Islam: 1058–1258
"Moslems seem to have been better gentlemen than their Christian peers; they kept their word more frequently, showed more mercy to the defeated, and were seldom guilty of the brutality as marked the Christian capture of Jerusalem in 1099."
  1. Judaic Civilization: AD 135-1300
  2. #The Talmud: 135–500
  3. #The Medieval Jews: 500–1300
  4. #The Mind and Heart of the Jew: 500–1300
  5. The Dark Ages: AD 566–1095
  6. #The Byzantine World: 566–1095
  7. #The Decline of the West: 566–1066
  8. #The Rise of the North: 566–1066
  9. #Christianity in Conflict: 529–1085
  10. #Feudalism and Chivalry: 600–1200
"Beliefs make history, especially when they are wrong; it is for errors that men have most nobly died."
  1. The Climax of Christianity: 1095–1300
  2. #The Crusades: 1095–1291
  3. #The Economic Revolution: 1066–1300
  4. #The Recovery of Europe: 1095–1300
  5. #Pre-Renaissance Italy: 1057–1308
  6. #The Roman Catholic Church: 1095–1294
  7. #The Early Inquisition: 1000–1300
  8. #Monks and Friars: 1095–1300
  9. #The Morals and Manners of Christendom: 700–1300
  10. #The Resurrection of the Arts: 1095–1300
  11. #The Gothic Flowering: 1095–1300
  12. #Medieval Music: 326–1300
  13. #The Transmission of Knowledge: 1000–1300
  14. #Abélard: 1079–1142
  15. #The Adventure of Reason: 1120–1308
  16. #Christian Science: 1095–1300
  17. #The Age of Romance: 1100–1300
  18. #Dante: 1265–1321
"All in all, the picture we form of the medieval Latin Church is that of a complex organization doing its best, despite the human frailties of its adherents and leaders, to establish moral and social order, and to spread an uplifting and consoling faith, amid the wreckage of an old civilization and the passions of an adolescent society."

V. ''The Renaissance'' (1953)

This volume covers the history of Italy from c.1300 to the mid 16th century, focusing on the Italian Renaissance.
  1. Prelude: 1300–77
  2. #The Age of Petrarch and Boccaccio: 1304–75
  3. #The Popes in Avignon: 1309–77
"Venetian merchants invaded every market from Jerusalem to Antwerp; they traded impartially with Christians and Mohammedans, and papal excommunications fell upon them with all the force of dew upon the earth."
  1. The Florentine Renaissance: 1378–1534
  2. #The Rise of the Medici: 1378–1464
  3. #The Golden Age: 1464–92
  4. #Savonarola and the Republic: 1492–1534
"But it took more than a revival of antiquity to make the Renaissance. And first of all it took money—smelly bourgeois money:... of careful calculations, investments and loans, of interest and dividends accumulated until surplus could be spared from the pleasures of the flesh, from the purchase of senates, signories, and mistresses, to pay a Michelangelo or a Titian to transmute wealth into beauty, and perfume a fortune with the breath of art. Money is the root of all civilization."
  1. Italian Pageant: 1378–1534
  2. #Milan
  3. #Leonardo da Vinci
  4. #Tuscany and Umbria
  5. #Mantua
  6. #Ferrara
  7. #Venice and Her Realm
  8. #Emilia and the Marches
  9. #The Kingdom of Naples
"He was not handsome; like most great men, he was spared this distracting handicap."
  1. The Roman Renaissance: 1378–1521
  2. #The Crisis in the Church: 1378–1521
  3. #The Renaissance Captures Rome: 1447–92
  4. #The Borgias
  5. #Julius II: 1503–13
  6. #Leo X: 1513–21
  7. Debacle
  8. #The Intellectual Revolt
  9. #The Moral Release
  10. #The Political Collapse: 1494–1534
"The historian acquainted with the pervasive pertinacity of nonsense reconciles himself to a glorious future for superstition; he does not expect perfect states to arise out of imperfect men; he perceives that only a small proportion of any generation can be so freed from economic harassments as to have leisure and energy to think their own thoughts instead of those of their forebears or their environment; and he learns to rejoice if he can find in each period a few men and women who have lifted themselves, by the bootstraps of their brains, or by some boon of birth or circumstance, out of superstition, occultism, and credulity to an informed and friendly intelligence conscious of its infinite ignorance."
  1. Finale: 1534–76
  2. #Sunset in Venice
  3. #The Waning of The Renaissance
  4. Envoi

    VI. ''The Reformation'' (1957)

This volume covers the history of Europe outside of Italy from around 1300 to 1564, focusing on the Protestant Reformation.
  1. From John Wyclif to Martin Luther: 1300–1517
  2. #The Roman Catholic Church: 1300–1517
  3. #England, Wyclif, Chaucer, and the Great Revolt: 1308–1400
  4. #France Besieged: 1300–1461
  5. #Gallia Phoenix: 1453–1515
  6. #England in the Fifteenth Century: 1399–1509
  7. #Episode in Burgundy: 1363–1515
  8. #Middle Europe: 1300–1460
  9. #The Western Slavs: 1300–1516
  10. #The Ottoman Tide: 1300–1516
  11. #Portugal Inaugurates the Commercial Revolution: 1300–1517
  12. #Spain: 1300–1517
  13. #The Growth of Knowledge: 1300–1517
  14. #The Conquest of the Sea: 1492–1517
  15. #Erasmus the Forerunner: 1469–1517
  16. #Germany on the Eve of Luther: 1453–1517
  17. The Religious Revolution: 1517–64
  18. #Luther: The Reformation in Germany: 1517–24
  19. #The Social Revolution: 1522–36
  20. #Zwingli: The Reformation in Switzerland: 1477–1531
  21. #Luther and Erasmus: 1517–36
  22. #The Faiths at War: 1525–60
  23. #John Calvin: 1509–64
  24. #Francis I and the Reformation in France: 1515–59
  25. #Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey: 1509–29
  26. #Henry VIII and Thomas More: 1529–35
  27. #Henry VIII and the Monasteries: 1535–47
  28. #Edward VI and Mary Tudor: 1547–58
  29. #From Robert Bruce to John Knox: 1300–1561
  30. #The Migrations of Reform: 1517–60
  31. The Strangers in the Gate: 1300–1566
  32. #The Unification of Russia: 1300–1584
  33. #The Genius of Islam: 1258–1520
  34. #Suleiman the Magnificent: 1520–66
  35. #The Jews: 1300–1564
  36. Behind the Scenes: 1517–1564
  37. #The Life of the People
  38. #Music: 1300–1564
  39. #Literature in the Age of Rabelais
  40. #Art in the Age of Holbein
  41. #Science in the Age of Copernicus
"People then, as now, were judged more by their manners than by their morals; the world forgave more readily the sins that were committed with the least vulgarity and the greatest grace. Here, as in everything but artillery and theology, Italy led the way."
  1. The Counter Reformation: 1517–65
  2. #The Church and Reform
  3. #The Popes and the Council

    VII. ''The Age of Reason Begins'' (1961)

This volume covers the history of Europe and the Near East from 1559 to 1648.
  1. The English Ecstasy: 1558–1648
  2. #The Great Queen: 1558–1603
  3. #Merrie England: 1558–1625
  4. #On the Slopes of Parnassus: 1558–1603
  5. #William Shakespeare: 1564–1616
  6. #Mary, Queen of Scots: 1542–87
  7. #James VI and I: 1567–1625
  8. #The Summons to Reason: 1558–1649
  9. #The Great Rebellion: 1625–49
"Witches were burned, and Jesuits were taken down from the scaffold to be cut to pieces alive. The milk of human kindness flowed sluggishly in the days of Good Queen Bess."
  1. The Faiths Fight for Power: 1556–1648
  2. #Alma Mater Italia: 1564–1648
  3. #Grandeur and Decadence of Spain: 1556–1665
  4. #The Golden Age of Spanish Literature: 1556–1665
  5. #The Golden Age of Spanish Art: 1556–1682
  6. #The Duel for France: 1559–74
  7. #Henry IV: 1553–1610
  8. #Richelieu: 1585–1642
  9. #France Beneath the Wars: 1559–1643
  10. #The Revolt of the Netherlands: 1558–1648
  11. #From Rubens to Rembrandt: 1555–1660
  12. #The Rise of the North: 1559–1648
  13. #The Islamic Challenge: 1566–1648
  14. #Imperial Armageddon: 1564–1648
"The stones in his bladder bothered him more than the wars of France."
  1. The Tentatives of Reason: 1558–1648
  2. #Science in the Age of Galileo: 1558–1648
  3. #Philosophy Reborn: 1564–1648
"Is Christianity dying?... If this is so, it is the basic event of modern times, for the soul of a civilization is its religion, and it dies with its faith."

VIII. ''The Age of Louis XIV'' (1963)

This volume covers the period of Louis XIV of France in Europe and the Near East.
  1. The French Zenith: 1643–1715
  2. #The Sun Rises: 1643–84
  3. #The Crucible of Faith: 1643–1715
  4. #The King and the Arts: 1643–1715
  5. #Molière: 1622–73
  6. #The Classic Zenith in French Literature: 1643–1715
  7. #Tragedy in the Netherlands: 1649–1715
"It was an age of strict manners and loose morals."
"Like the others, he came from the middle class; the aristocracy is too interested in the art of life to spare time for the life of art."
  1. England: 1649–1714
  2. #Cromwell: 1649–60
  3. #Milton: 1608–74
  4. #The Restoration: 1660–85
  5. #The Glorious Revolution: 1685–1714
  6. #From Dryden to Swift: 1660–1714
  7. The Periphery: 1648–1715
  8. #The Struggle for the Baltic: 1648–1721
  9. #Peter the Great: 1698–1725
  10. #The Changing Empire: 1648–1715
  11. #The Fallow South: 1648–1715
  12. #The Jewish Enclaves: 1564–1715
  13. The Intellectual Adventure: 1648–1715
  14. #From Superstition to Scholarship: 1648–1715
  15. #The Scientific Quest: 1648–1715
  16. #Isaac Newton: 1642–1727
  17. #English Philosophy: 1648–1715
  18. #Faith and Reason in France: 1648–1715
  19. #Spinoza: 1632–77
  20. #Leibniz: 1646–1716
  21. France Against Europe: 1683–1715
  22. #The Sun Sets

    IX. ''The Age of Voltaire'' (1965)

This volume covers the period of the Age of Enlightenment, as exemplified by Voltaire, focusing on the period between 1715 and 1756 in France, Britain, and Germany.
  1. France: The Regency
  2. England: 1714–56
  3. #The People
  4. #The Rulers
  5. #Religion and Philosophy
  6. #Literature and the Stage
  7. #Art and Music
  8. France: 1723–56
  9. #The People and the State
  10. #Morals and Manners
  11. #The Worship of Beauty
  12. #The Play of the Mind
  13. #Voltaire in France
"Women, when on display, dressed as in our wondering youth, when the female structure was a breathless mystery costly to behold."
  1. Middle Europe: 1713–56
  2. #The Germany of Bach
  3. #Frederick the Great and Maria Theresa
  4. #Switzerland and Voltaire
  5. The Advancement of Learning: 1715–89
  6. #The Scholars
  7. #The Scientific Advance
  8. #Medicine
  9. The Attack upon Christianity: 1730–74
  10. #The Atheists
  11. #Diderot and the Encyclopedie
  12. #Diderot Proteus
  13. #The Spreading Campaign
  14. #Voltaire and Christianity
  15. #The Triumph of the Philosophes

    X. ''Rousseau and Revolution'' (1967)

This volume centers on Jean-Jacques Rousseau and his times. It received the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1968.
  1. Prelude
  2. #Rousseau Wanderer: 1712–56
  3. #The Seven Years' War: 1756–63
  4. France Before the Deluge: 1757–74
  5. #The Life of the State
  6. #The Art of Life
  7. #Voltaire Patriarch: 1758–78
  8. #Rousseau Romantic: 1756–62
  9. #Rousseau Philosopher
  10. #Rousseau Outcast: 1762–67
  11. The Catholic South: 1715–89
  12. #Italia Felix: 1715–59
  13. #Portugal and Pombal: 1706–82
  14. #Spain and the Enlightenment: 1700–88
  15. #Vale, Italia: 1760–89
  16. #The Enlightenment in Austria: 1756–90
  17. #Music Reformed
  18. #Mozart
"Lovers under a window plucked at a guitar or mandolin and a maiden’s heart."
  1. Islam and the Slavic East: 1715–96
  2. #Islam: 1715–96
  3. #Russian Interlude: 1725–62
  4. #Catherine the Great: 1762–96
  5. #The Rape of Poland: 1715–95
  6. The Protestant North: 1756–89
  7. #Frederick's Germany: 1756–86
  8. #Kant: 1724–1804
  9. #Roads to Weimar: 1733–87
  10. #Weimar in Flower: 1775–1805
  11. #Goethe Nestor: 1805–32
  12. #The Jews: 1715–89
  13. #From Geneva to Stockholm
"He concluded that history is an excellent teacher with few pupils."
  1. Johnson's England: 1756–89
  2. #The Industrial Revolution
  3. #The Political Drama: 1756–92
  4. #The English People: 1756–89
  5. #The Age of Reynolds: 1756–90
  6. #England's Neighbors: 1756–89
  7. #The Literary Scene: 1756–89
  8. #Samuel Johnson: 1709–84
  9. The Collapse of Feudal France: 1774–89
  10. #The Final Glory: 1774–83
  11. #Death and the Philosophers: 1774–1807
  12. #On the Eve: 1774–89
  13. #The Anatomy of Revolution: 1774–89
  14. #The Political Debacle: 1783–89
  15. Envoi

    XI. ''The Age of Napoleon'' (1975)

This volume centers on Napoleon I of France and his times.
  1. The French Revolution: 1789–99
  2. #The Background of Revolution: 1774–89
  3. #The National Assembly: May 4, 1789 – September 30, 1791
  4. #The Legislative Assembly: October 1, 1791 – September 20, 1792
  5. #The Convention: September 21, 1792 – October 26, 1795
  6. #The Directory: November 2, 1795 – November 9, 1799
  7. #Life Under the Revolution: 1789–99
  8. Napoleon Ascendant: 1799–1811
  9. #The Consulate: November 11, 1799 – May 18, 1804
  10. #The New Empire: 1804–07
  11. #The Mortal Realm: 1807–11
  12. #Napoleon Himself
  13. #Napoleonic France: 1800–1815
  14. #Napoleon and the Arts
  15. #Literature versus Napoleon
  16. #Science and Philosophy under Napoleon
"It was a typical Napoleonic campaign: swift, victorious, and futile."
  1. Britain: 1789–1812
  2. #England at Work
  3. #English Life
  4. #The Arts in England
  5. #Science in England
  6. #English Philosophy
  7. #Literature in Transition
  8. #The Lake Poets: 1770–1850
  9. #The Rebel Poets: 1788–1824
  10. #England's Neighbors: 1789–1815
  11. #Pitt, Nelson, and Napoleon: 1789–1812
  12. The Challenged Kings: 1789–1812
  13. #Iberia
  14. #Italy and Its Conquerors: 1789–1813
  15. #Austria: 1780–1812
  16. #Beethoven: 1770–1827
  17. #Germany and Napoleon: 1786–1811
  18. #The German People: 1789–1812
  19. #German Literature: 1789–1815
  20. #German Philosophy: 1789–1815
  21. #Around the Heartland: 1789–1812
  22. #Russia: 1796–1812
"... she entered upon a series of adventures, in one of which she was surprised with motherhood."
  1. Finale: 1811–1815
  2. #To Moscow: 1811–12
  3. #To Elba: 1813–14
  4. #To Waterloo: 1814–15
  5. #To St. Helena
  6. #To the End
  7. #Afterward: 1815–40

    Objective

Durant said his purpose in writing the series was not to create a definitive scholarly production but to make a large amount of information accessible and comprehensible to the educated public in the form of a comprehensive "composite history." Given the massive undertaking in creating 11 volumes over 50 years, errors and incompleteness were inevitable by Durant's own reckoning; but he claimed that no other historical survey matches, let alone exceeds, the breadth and depth of his project.
As Durant says in the preface to his first work, Our Oriental Heritage:

Development history

Editors on the series included M. Lincoln Schuster and Michael Korda.

Reception

One volume, Rousseau and Revolution, won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1968. All eleven volumes were Book-of-the-Month Club selections and best-sellers with total sales of more than two million copies in nine languages.