About this item
[Read by Robin Field] [Our Oriental Heritage is Volume 1 -- of the eleven volume 'The Story of Civilization' Series] The first volume of Will Durant's Pulitzer Prize-winning series, Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization, Volume I chronicles the early history of Egypt, the Middle East, and Asia. In this masterful work, readers will encounter: *Sumeria, birthplace of the first cities and written laws *the Egyptians, who perfected monumental architecture, medicine, and mummification more than 3,500 years ago *the Babylonians, who developed astronomy and physics, and planted the seeds of Western mythology *the Judeans, who preserved their culture forever in the immortal books of the Old Testament *the Persians, who ruled the largest empire in recorded history before Rome *Indian philosophy, Chinese philosophers, and Japanese samurais --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
William James Durant (November 5, 1885 – November 7, 1981) was a prolific American writer, historian, and philosopher. He is best known for The Story of Civilization, 11 volumes written in collaboration with his wife Ariel Durant and published between 1935 and 1975. He conceived of philosophy as total perspective, or, seeing things "sub specie totius," a phrase inspired by Spinoza's "sub specie aeternitatis." He sought to unify and humanize the great body of historical knowledge, which had grown too voluminous and become fragmented into esoteric specialties, and to vitalize it for contemporary application. Durant was a gifted prose stylist and storyteller who won a large readership in great part because of the nature and excellence of his writing, which, in contrast to formal academic language, is lively, witty, charismatic, colourful, ornate, epigrammatic, in short, "humanized."
