Heroes of History
A Brief History of Civilization from Ancient Times to the Dawn of the Modern Age

At Will Durants death in 1981, his personal papers were dispersed among relatives, collectors, and archive houses. Twenty years later, scholar John Little discovered the previously unknown manuscript of Heroes of History in Durants granddaughters garage. Written shortly before he died, these twenty-one essays serve as an abbreviated version of Durants bestselling, eleven-volume series, The Story of Civilization. Durant traces the lives and ideas of those who have helped to define civilization, from Confucius to Shakespeare, from the Roman Empire to the Reformation, spanning thousands of years of human history. A volume of life-enhancing wit and wisdom, Heroes of History draws upon Durants expansive knowledge and singular ability to translate distant events and complex ideas into easily accessible principles.