In this illuminating and thoughtful book, Will and Ariel Durant have succeeded i
n distilling for the reader the accumulated store of knowledge and experience fr
om their five decades of work on the eleven monumental volumes of The Story of C
ivilization. The result is a survey of human history, full of dazzling insights
into the nature of human experience, the evolution of civilization, and the cult
ure of man. With the completion of their life's work, they look back and ask wha
t history has to say about the nature, the conduct and the prospects of man, see
king in the great lives, the great ideas, the great events of the past for the m
eaning of man's long journey through war, conquest and creation - and for the gr
eat themes that can help us to understand our own era.
