Expert: Maria - 8/4/2006

Question
I have aquired the complete set of 11 books by Will Durant called The Story of Civilization.  I have particually enjoy vol. ll, The Life of Greece, and am now on Vol.lll, Caesar and Christ.  While short on detail, how accurate is the information, considering the books were written in the late 30s?  I am 64 and have had a keen interest in history all my life.  This is my first venture in world history, as up til now I read mostly America history.  Thank you very much for any information you give.

Answer
Hello,

I think that Will Durant has had the merit of making  popular  history as he presents it in a widely understandable form so that he popularizes history  for a general audience, not only for  historians, i.e. for    scholars who are  specialist in this  branch of knowledge. In fact, when he was criticized  as an ‘amateur historian’ without qualifications, he said  that “any man who sells his soul to synthesis will be a tragic target for a myriad merry darts of specialist critique”.
He in fact did not want that his Story of Civilization (written in the years between 1935 and 1975) was ‘a professional or definitive historical writing’, but rather an attempt to vulgarize history by providing the greatest possible amount of information to educate the reading  public through a "composite history."

As for  how accurate is the information, considering the books were written in the years between 1935 and 1975, it’s very difficult to answer this question first because The Story of Civilization is a work in 11 volumes that range from Our Oriental Heritage (1st. volume) to The Age of Napoleon (11th. volume) and therefore it would need to analyze every single period to verify information; second because obviously Will Durant could not know the possible outcomes of  historical research  in the last years.

Anyway I think you will enjoy reading this work.
All the best,
Maria