The Life of Greece, Will Durant
The Life of Greece, Will Durant
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The Life of Greece
The Story of Civilization, Volume 2

Author: Will Durant

Narrator: Stefan Rudnicki

Unabridged: 32 hr 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/15/2013

Synopsis

The second volume of Will Durants Pulitzer Prizewinning series, The Life of Greece: The Story of Civilization, Volume 2 chronicles the history of ancient Greek civilization. Here Durant tells the whole story of Greece, from the days of Cretes vast Aegean empire to the final extirpation of the last remnants of Greek liberty, crushed under the heel of an implacably forward-marching Rome. The dry minutiae of battles and sieges, of tortuous statecraft of tyrant and king, get the minor emphasis in what is preeminently a vivid recreation of Greek culture, brought to the reader through the medium of supple, vigorous prose. In this masterful work, readers will learn about: the siege of Troy the great city-states of Athens and Sparta the heroes of Homers epics the gods and lesser deities of Mount Olympus the teachings of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle the life of Alexander the Great

About Will Durant

Will Durant (1885–1981) was an award-winning American writer, historian, and philosopher. He and his wife were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1968 for Rousseau and Revolution, and he was a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Durant spent over forty years writing the critically acclaimed eleven-volume Story of Civilization, the later volumes with the help of his wife, Ariel. He sought
to revitalize history by unifying and humanizing the great body of historical
knowledge, which had become voluminous and fragmented into esoteric
subcategories. He also strove to bring
philosophy to the common man. Durant was a champion of human rights, social reform, and the brotherhood of man long before they became well-known issues.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Roy on January 25, 2016

Edward Gibbon, never the optimist, in his long chronicle of the collapse of the Roman Empire defined history as “little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.” Will Durant thinks this is a terrible mistake, and his series on the Story of Civilization can in part b......more

Goodreads review by Janet on December 31, 2023

Reading Durant’s account of life in Ancient Greece, published in 1939, is pretty much like reading a CNN or Guardian analysis piece today. Take just one example in the Epilogue where he says: “Greek civilization is alive; it moves in every breath of wind that we breathe; so much of it remains that n......more

Goodreads review by Jim on January 11, 2010

For many years, I have been curious about Will and Ariel Durant, those amateur historians who attempted to plot the course of civilization from the beginnings to the present day. Unfortunately, they did not live long enough to accomplish their goal, but what they did accomplish was nothing short of......more

Goodreads review by Jamie on July 01, 2019

Why read The Story of Civilization, its eleven volumes and four million words? There are more modern histories, benefiting from recent findings in archaeology, anthropology, and science, but Durant gives the reader an encyclopedic grasp of history, a fluid, beautiful writing style, and insights into......more

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