The Story of Civilization: Volume VII: The Age of Reason Begins

This book collection by Will Durant represents the most comprehensive attempt in our times to embrace the vast panorama of mans history and culture. Durant is an excellent historian, and although much of what the books contained is now defunct, the majority is written very comprehensively, steering clear of controversy and unknowns in a manner of detached and objective scholarship (at least for the time period). If there is a linchpin to understanding modern European history, it lies in the period of religious strife & scientific progress between the 1550s & 1650s. In The Age of Reason Begins, Will & Ariel Durant bring together a fascinating network of stories in their discussion of the bumpy road toward the Enlightenment. This is the age of great monarchs & greater artists: on the one hand, Elizabeth the First of England, Philip II of Spain & Henry IV of France; on the other, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Montaigne & Rembrandt. It also encompasses the heyday of Bacon, Galileo, Giordano Bruno & Descartes--the fathers of modern science & philosophy. But it is equally an age of extreme violence, a moment in which all Europe was embroiled in the horrible Thirty Years' War--in some respects, the real First World War. Whatever the case, this is a chapter in cultural history one can't set aside. "Mr & Mrs Durant are admirably lucid...This is a book that can be commended very warmly."--The New York Times Durant Will. The Story of Civilization: Our Oriental Heritage. Book 1 Durant Will. The Story of Civilization: The Life in Greece. Book 2 Durant Will. The Story of Civilization: Caesar and Christ. Book 3 Durant Will. The Story of Civilization: The Age of Faith. Book 4 Durant Will. The Story of Civilization: The Renaissance. Book 5 Durant Will. The Story of Civilization: The Reformation. Book 6 Durant Will. The Story of Civilization: The Age of Reason Begins. Book 7 Durant Will. The Story of Civilization: The Age of Lois XIV. Book 8 Durant Will. The Story of Civilization: The Age of Voltaire. Book 9 Durant Will. The Story of Civilization: Rousseau and Revolution. Book 10 Durant Will. The Story of Civilization: The Age of Napoleon. Book 11 The Age of Reason Begins brings together a fascinating network of stories in the discussion of the bumpy road toward the Enlightenment. This is the age of great monarchs and greater artists--on the one hand, Elizabeth the First of England, Philip II of Spain, and Henry IV of France; on the other, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Montaigne, and Rembrandt. It also encompasses the heyday of Francis Bacon, Galileo, Giordano Bruno, and Descartes, the fathers of modern science and philosophy. But it is equally an age of extreme violence, a moment in which all Europe was embroiled in the horrible Thirty Years' War--in some respects, the real first world war The Story of Civilization, Volume VII: A history of European civilization in the period of Shakespeare, Bacon, Montaigne, Rembrandt, Galileo, and Descartes: 1558-1648. This is the seventh volume of the classic, Pulitzer Prize-winning series. ON November 17, 1558, a courier galloped into the court of the royal palace at Hatfield, thirty-six miles north of London, and announced to Elizabeth Tudor that she was Queen of England. A history of European civilization in the period of Shakespeare, Bacon, Montaigne, Rembrandt, Galileo, and Descartes: 1558 - 1648 Examines the religious strife and scientific progress made from 1558 to 1650 in Europe