Amazon.com
One is sorely tempted to allow the marvelously lucid prose in Alan S. Kahan's new translation of Alexis de Tocqueville's study of the French Revolution speak for itself: "In 1789 the French made the greatest effort ever undertaken by any people to disassociate themselves from their past, and to put an abyss between what they had been and what they wished to become." But as Tocqueville found out when--with the hindsight of half a century--he examined the historical records, the revolution was really not so radical a turn of events. "True, it took the world by surprise, and yet it was the result of a very long process, the sudden and violent climax of a task to which ten generations had contributed." Thus the first volume of The Old Regime and the Revolution concerns itself with the state of affairs before 1798, getting beyond the "confused and often mistaken notions" of his contemporaries "about the manner in which business was conducted, the real practices of institutions ... the real basis of ideas and mores." Although many historians have taken on the French Revolution in the years since Tocqueville's analysis was first published, few have addressed the subject with as effective a combination of insight and clarity. --Ron Hogan
Book Description
The Old Regime and the Revolution is Alexis de Tocqueville's great meditation on the origins and meanings of the French Revolution. One of the most profound and influential studies of this pivotal event, it remains a relevant and stimulating discussion of the problem of preserving individual and political freedom in the modern world. Alan Kahan's translation provides a faithful, readable rendering of Tocqueville's last masterpiece, and includes notes and variants which reveal Tocqueville's sources and include excerpts from his drafts and revisions. The introduction by France's most eminent scholars of Tocqueville and the French Revolution, Françoise Mélonio and the late François Furet, provides a brilliant analysis of the work.
Customer Reviews:
the great French observer of America looks at France.......2000-10-13
Alexis de Tocqueville is, of course, the most perceptive observer of American democracy ever to grace our shores, his Democracy in America one of the most important books ever written about democracy in general and the American Republic in specific. Here, in a less read work, he takes on the origins of the French Revolution and the peculiar French form of democracy it brought and proves an equally keen observer of his own country and countrymen.
De Tocqueville makes several vital points about the French Revolution: first, that it built gradually and, given circumstances in France, was inevitable; second, where the American Revolution had as its lodestar the ideal of freedom, the French Revolution was motivated by a passionate hatred of inequality; third, the demise of all insitutions other than the monarchy in France made it certain that when Revolution came, it would be violent and unchecked; finally, this combination of factors lead to the bizarre nature of the French Revolution, with no developed institutions to turn to once the King was gone and with no great emphasis placed on freedom, the French people were willing to tolerate the nihilism of the Terror and the authoritarianism of the governments that replaced the monarchy. He does not make the case, but it lies before us, that the American Revolution was fundamentally a positive action, a demand for greater freedom, but the French Revolution was a negative action, a demand that the few not own more than the many.
This book was to be followed by a second volume dealing with the the Revolution itself, but he died before he could continue the work. That is a shame; it would have been interesting to have some more insight from him into the French, it seems unlikely that anyone has ever rendered a better description of his people than the one he offers in his Conclusion:
When I observe France from this angle [their temperament] I find the nation itself far more remarkable than any of the events in its long history. It hardly seems possible that there can ever have existed any other people so full of contrasts and so extreme in all their doings, so much guided by their emotions and so little by fixed principles, always behaving better, or worse, than one expected of them....Undisciplined by temperament, the Frenchman is always readier to put up with arbitrary rule, however harsh, of an autocrat than with a free, well-ordered government by his fellow citizens, however worthy of respect they be. At one moment he is up in arms against authority and the next we find him serving the powers that be with a zeal such as the most servile races never display.
In the context of this paragraph, we can begin to understand Vichy France and the bureaucratic tyranny of the modern French nation. I say "begin"...
GRADE: B+
Tres Tres Bien.......2000-04-27
Tocqueville has always been, and probably always will be, known as the author of "Democracy in America," a wide-ranging and perspicacious study of the early republic. However, it's when he writes about his own France, and its political system that he knows so intimately, that Tocqueville is at his best. Unlike "Democracy," "The Ancient Regime" is neither sprawling, judgmental, nor inaccurate. These are excusable lapses, of course, in a grand work of poignant analysis, but such deficiencies do not mar "The Ancient Regime." This book is succinct, beautifully written, expertly researched, and incredibly original. Because Tocqueville was French and worked in the French government, this work is much more focused, specific, and accurate than "Democracy" (written hastily after a 9-month tour of America in 1830-31). It is simply a brilliant work, the creation of a curious and sometimes eccentric mind.
Amazon.com
In this collection of biographical and historical sketches drawn from an unfinished manuscript discovered two decades after his death, Will Durant celebrates historical figures whose examples demonstrate that humans can, "when sufficiently inspired, rise to levels of greatness with the gods themselves."
Durant (1885-1981), the principal author of The Story of Civilization, saw history as a branch of philosophy, and he peppered his stories of great historical actors and events with moral lessons and observed patterns ("One of the most regular sequences in history is that a period of pagan license is followed by an age of puritan restraint and moral discipline"). These brief lectures, touching on leaders and innovators, such as Buddha, Marcus Aurelius, Leonardo da Vinci, and Martin Luther, afford him plenty of opportunity to reflect on the meaning of the past and to offer models for his readers to study and emulate.
Like Durant's other work, this book has an old-fashioned air about it: it is Eurocentric to the core, and it makes almost no mention of women, who surely contributed to the rise of civilizations. Still, fans of Durant's brand of sweeping narrative history will enjoy having these final words from the master. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
In the tradition of his own bestselling masterpieces The Story of Civilization and The Lessons of History, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Will Durant here traces the lives and ideas of those who have helped to define civilization, from its dawn to the beginning of the modern world.
Four years before his death, Will Durant began work on an abbreviated version of his highly acclaimed eleven-volume series, The Story of Civilization. The project was conceived as a series of audio lectures, but Durant soon realized that the dialogues could be developed into a book that would serve as a wonderfully readable introduction to the subject of history.
Durant completed twenty-one of a proposed twenty-three chapters before his death in 1981, at the age of ninety-six. Those chapters span thousands of years of human history -- from Confucius to Shakespeare, from the Roman Empire to the Reformation, finally ending in the eighteenth century. The manuscript was recently found by Will Durant scholar John Little -- twenty years after Durant finished it -- and its discovery is a major event, not only for lovers of his prose, but for students of history and philosophy the world over.
Heroes of History is a book of life-enhancing wisdom and optimism, complete with Durant's wit, knowledge, and unique ability to explain events and ideas in simple, exciting terms. It is the lessons of our heritage passed on for the edification and benefit of future generations -- a fitting legacy from America's most beloved historian and philosopher.
Will Durant's popularity as America's favorite teacher of history and philosophy remains undiminished by time. His books are accessible to readers of every kind, and his unique ability to compress complicated ideas and events into a few pages without ever "talking down" to the reader, enhanced by his memorable wit and a razor-sharp judgment about men and their motives, made all of his books huge bestsellers. Heroes of History carries on this tradition of making scholarship and philosophy understandable to the general reader, and making them good reading, as well.
At the dawn of a new millennium and the beginning of a new century, nothing could be more appropriate than this brilliant book that examines the meaning of human civilization and history and draws from the experience of the past the lessons we need to know to put the future into context and live in confidence, rather than fear and ignorance.
Will Durant's work is marked by his own special quality as a writer -- he is tough-minded, optimistic, courageous, and convinced that without a knowledge of the past there is no wisdom to guide us to the future. Heroes of History was his last word on the subject, and much of it has been aimed directly at the doubts and fears of people today. It is a major, and unexpected, literary and historical event.
This book is also available on audio tape and CD format, read by Will and Ariel Durant. If you would like more information on this and other products featuring Will Durant's life-enhancing philosophy, we encourage you to visit the web site at www.willdurant.com.
Download Description
"In the tradition of his own bestselling masterpieces The Story of Civilization and The Lessons of History, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Will Durant here traces the lives and ideas of those who have helped to define civilization, from its dawn to the beginning of the modern world. Four years before his death, Will Durant began work on an abbreviated version of his highly acclaimed eleven-volume series, The Story of Civilization. The project was conceived as a series of audio lectures, but Durant soon realized that the dialogues could be developed into a book that would serve as a wonderfully readable introduction to the subject of history. Durant completed twenty-one of a proposed twenty-three chapters before his death in 1981, at the age of ninety-six. Those chapters span thousands of years of human history -- from Confucius to Shakespeare, from the Roman Empire to the Reformation, finally ending in the eighteenth century. The manuscript was recently found by Will Durant scholar John Little -- twenty years after Durant finished it -- and its discovery is a major event, not only for lovers of his prose, but for students of history and philosophy the world over. Heroes of History is a book of life-enhancing wisdom and optimism, complete with Durant's wit, knowledge, and unique ability to explain events and ideas in simple, exciting terms. It is the lessons of our heritage passed on for the edification and benefit of future generations -- a fitting legacy from America's most beloved historian and philosopher.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent introduction to Will Durant.......2007-07-14
I have never read his acclaimed Story of Civilization series in its entirety. I have however glanced through them from time to time to look up information. The book entitled "Rosseau & Revolution" was instrumental for me when I wrote my final paper for my B.A. in History. I decided to pick this up because I was not yet ready to commit myself to the 11 volume set. I figured this was a good starting point to get an idea of whether or not I would enjoy the larger work.
What needs to be understood is that this is NOT a condensed version of the Story of Civilization. It does follow the time arc of the Story of Civilization. It has a completely different aim. This book focuses on the individuals of civilization. He starts off with the Eastern Philosophers such as in his words "the boy called Siddartha Gautama" and finishes with the great Shakespeare. Now, don't get me wrong, a book of this size can never do justice to the individuals written about here whether it is Virgil or Leonardo and so forth. But this book was not intended to be for anyone but the general reader. He paints a wonderful picture of the achievements of the various individuals he discusses. His love for history is abundantly clear in his writing.
The only thing that kept me from giving it a perfect 5 star rating is that the book is not finished, nor will it ever be. Durant was unable to finish the final 2 chapters before his death. Second, while his literary style is unparalleled among writers of history, the writing feels a bit more disjointed as the book moves towards the later chapters. I suspect he probably was planning to polish the writing a bit more until he ran out of time. But the overall quality of the information presented here does not lose its importance. It's more of a personal criticism on my part.
For anyone with an interest in world history or curiosity about Will Durant, this is a highly recommended book. There was no one who could paint such a vivid picture of history like Will could.
Must Read.......2007-04-12
Profound and thought-provoking. A really wonderful read, particularly for those who are well-read in the underlying topics he covers. Immersing yourself in his thought process is more important than accepting his conclusions.
Good, but not exactly what I though it was.......2006-05-27
When I was a boy I remember my father receiving the complete Story of Civilization series by Will Durant and his enthusiasm for them, and for the man. To my impressionable young self the books became tinged with a sense of awe and power until they seemed like religious icons. It was like we had a piece of the Shroud of Turin or something equivalent. In these books was....everything. The entire history of the world. That was so amazing. Yet even more amazing to my eight year-old mind was the fact that ONE man knew everything. And he wrote it down! How can one man know everything? The entire and complete history of the world? That was pretty impressive to my young self and it is still pretty impressive to my middle-aged self. I was a little young at 8 years old to tackle the Story of Civilization, and my dad wasn't too keen on me thumbing through his treasures, but I decided that someday I would read those books. I recalled that resolve a few months ago and decided to order the Story of Civilization from Amazon. I was disappointed to find that I can't get hardback versions right now, and I don't see how they could ever work as paperbacks, so I'll have to keep haunting garage sales and used bookstores for now.
I have always thought that I should someday like to write a book about heroes through history, those men and women who through their wisdom, compassion, character and their heroic actions or nature have influenced the world for the better. I was somewhat disappointed when I was looking for the History of Civilization hardbacks to discover that Will Durant had already written Heroes of History. Darn it. But I will probably never get around to it and I was sure Mr. Durant could do a better job anyway so I just ordered his version.
Apparently Mr. Durant made a number of audio essays in the seventies in a prescient anticipation of books on tape. These audio tapes were condensed lectures meant to inform, educate, and entertain the public and to be more accessible to the general public than the Story of Civilization books which are somewhat formidable and daunting to your average American and to my 8 year old self. Mr. Durant adapted those audio tapes later into what amounts to a very condensed and abridged version of his larger work. Essentially he cut the complete version of his Story of Civilization from what must be about 20,000 pages down to 300. That is this book. It is not what I thought it was though. I was hoping that he had picked what he considered the 100 most heroic figures in history and written their stories.
Despite this book not being what I thought it was, I did sit down and read most of it today. I am of mixed minds on this book. On the one hand the man is a genius, writes extremely well (particularly so since he was over ninety when he drafted this book), and he is easily readable, clear, and thought-provoking. I did not intend to read the whole book today, but I kind of just kept going, even when I didn't mean to do so, which is a testament both to his skill and the fact that his writing is interesting as well as informative.
On the other hand, you can't really condense the Story of Civilization to 300 pages and when you try you run the risk of having to leave out whole swathes of history and even critical information about the periods you do talk about. I understand the problem though. He is trying to teach as much as he can to someone in 300 pages before that someone loses interest and wanders away. The book is also a little choppy because the chapters are actually adapted from the audiotapes and there are segues which, while they may work fine in a fireside chat context, are more than a little jarring in book format.
So, in my humble opinion, Durant is a genius and a pleasure to read, even compellingly readable, but this book is not what I thought it was (that's assuredly my fault for not reading the description and just leaping to a conclusion from the title) and I am not sure how well this book actually works. I actually want to read his entire work and always have, and reading this kind of choppy overview just confirmed that desire even more. Durant is great, I am going to read the whole history (my dad didn't, hah!), and I am going to love it. But since I am going to do the whole thing I really don't need the condensed version which, through no real fault of Durant's, just doesn't work that well. There is just no way to put the whole history of the world in 300 pages, so you have to leave things out, and as soon as you do that people are going to start second-guessing you about your editorial decisions. For example, I can't figure out why 12th century troubadors are worthy of making the cut but Leonidas and the Byzantine and Ottoman empires do not.
My advice: buy the whole history not the condensed version. If you don't want to do the entire Story of Civilization with me then this is a fine and compelling introduction to Durant. Just be warned that it isn't really about heroes, and that at 300 pages you are going to miss out on a lot of history but what you do get is fascinating and very readable.
another volume from gram and grams.......2005-08-10
a wonderful non text book for young people to begin to realize that they aren't the firsts to experience so many things in the world and that history can repeat itself.
Improvements welcome.......2005-07-25
This book was a disappointment. He begins by stating that women had a controlling role in the domestication of man, a politically correct notion that belies the fact that women were treated as property for most of history. Durant also uses a lot of filler. He quotes at length from ancient texts, poetry and the bible. We can find these sources if we have a desire to read them. What we want from him is his interpretation. The book would be shorter but more readable if these passages were removed.
Book Description
On the first day of Francisco de San Antonio's trial before the Spanish Inquisition in Toledo in 1625, his interrogators asked him about his parentage. His real name, he stated, was Abram Rubén, and he had been born in Fez of Jewish parents. How then, Inquisitors wanted to know, had he become a Christian convert? Why had a Hebrew alphabet been found in his possession? And what was his business at the Court in Madrid? "He was asked," according to his dossier, "for the story of his life." His response, more than ten folios long, is one of the many involuntary autobiographies created by the logic of the Inquisition that today provides rich insights into both the personal lives of the persecuted and the social, cultural, and political realities of the age.
In Inquisitorial Inquiries, Richard Kagan and Abigail Dyer have collected, translated, and annotated six of these autobiographies from a diverse group of prisoners, five tried in Europe and one in Mexico. Each of the autobiographies has been selected to represent a particular political or social issue, while at the same time raising more intimate questions about the religious, sexual, political, or national identity of the prisoners. Among them are a politically incendiary prophet; a self-proclaimed hermaphrodite charged with having violated the sacrament of marriage for having married a woman; a female convert to Catholicism who betrayed her Jewish origins by serving as a rabbi and preaching heretical doctrine in the New World; and a morisco, an Islamic convert to Catholicism who claimed to have been circumcised against his will. In their introduction, Kagan and Dyer stress the "collaborative" nature of these texts, stressing the coercion involved and the purpose of the interrogations that solicited them. Making these invaluable primary sources available for the first time in English, Inquisitorial Inquiries will be of interest to students and scholars in the fields of early modern Europe, colonial Latin America, gender studies, and religious history.
Book Description
The pleasures of puttering about in history inspire the wit and zing of a singular stylist.
Book Description
13 heroes--forgotten by time. These men changed the course
of history with their valor and larger-than-life actions, yet few
today remember their triumphs. Some were honorable, others not,
but their contemporaries regarded them with pride. Most were
professional soldiers, like Lieutenant Walter Hamilton, who
fought the Kabul mob to the death and took 600 of the enemy with
him. Another, Major General Lew Wallace, though primarily a
lawyer and politician, commanded a division at the Battle of
Shiloh; today most people know him as the author of Ben Hur.
Written by a best-selling author of military history, every true
story has as much excitement and wartime thrills as any work of
fiction.
Customer Reviews:
The Title Says It All ..........2005-07-10
Bryan Perrett is one of the most readable military history authors around, along with Ian Hernon, Ian Knight, and Byron Farwell, especially with regard to actions and officers from the 19th century and WWI. This outing showcases various officers from the American Revolution through WWI (with special emphasis on British figures from the Napoleonic wars and Britain's colonial era) who through force of will, charisma, brilliant tactics, and no small amount of luck were able to shape the outcome of various battles and campaigns, achieving contemporary honors and fame, but who through the passage of time have become forgotten. Some of the men profiled contributed to this ignominy by their less than stellar achievements and pursuits post-dating their moment of glory. The chapter on each of the men in question reads like a movie, explaining in exciting detail the particulars of each conflict that they played such a pivotal role in. Photographs and maps add to the overall picture. Of special interest was the chapter on Major-General Hector MacDonald ("Fighting Mac"), surely one of the best generals to ever serve in the British army, and one of the few British soldiers to rise from the ranks from private to general on his own merit. Serving in some of the more exotic and important theaters of conflict in the late 19th century of Britain's colonial empire, his achievements were sadly tarnished by false accusations of homosexuality that led him to take his own life rather than endure a scandal and bring shame to his family and his honor. Also of great interest were the exploits of Major William Hodson in the 1857 Indian Mutiny, where he made the controversial decision to personally execute several Indian princes in order to defuse a mob from attacking his troops. Anyone with a fervid or even a passing interest in military history will find this to be a fascinating tour of some of the more colorful figures to ever put on a uniform and seize the day, thereby becoming "heroes of the hour".
Average customer rating:
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Indian heroes and heroines of World War II: A brief history
Vidya Anand
Manufacturer: Institute for Media Communication
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: 0952622106 |
Average customer rating:
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Los Heroes De La Historia/ Heroes of History: Una breve historia de la civilizacion, desde la antiguedad hasta los albores de la edad moderna/ A brief History of civilization from ancient times to
Will Durant
Manufacturer: Sudamericana
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 950072412X |
Customer Reviews:
You won't believe Rhode Island has so many great walks!.......2001-07-10
Ken Weber has done an excellent job describing these walks. His descriptions and difficulty assessments are usually dead on correct, so you can easily judge which hike to take and how hard it will be. I have done most of the hikes in this book in 2001, and the 3rd edition is quite up to date. The companion book is excellent too (More Walks and Rambles in Rhode Island).
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- Supera El Estres/ Overcome the Stress (Guias Practicas de Salud, Nutrifarmacia y Medicina Natural)
- Teach Your Child: How to Discover and Enhance Your Child's True Potential
- The Enchantments of Judaism: Rites of Transformation from Birth Through Death
- The Gifted Kids Survival Guide II
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