WILL DURANT & Mustafa Kayyali 
Story of Civilization (Complete – 11 parts) 
Text, Summary, Plot Overview, Themes, Characters, Motifs and Notes (Annotated)

Will Durant (18851981) was awarded the Pulitzer Prize (1968) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1977). He spent more than fifty years writing his critically acclaimed eleven-volumeseries, The Story of Civilization (the later volumes written in conjunction with his wife, Ariel). Achampion of human rights issues, such as the brotherhood of man and social reform, longbefore such issues were popular, Durant’s writing still educates and entertains readers aroundthe world.William James Will Durant (/d E E rnt/; November 5, 1885 November 7, 1981) was an American writer, historian, and philosopher. He became best known for his work The Story of Civilization, 11 volumes written in collaboration with his wife, Ariel Durant, and publishedbetween 1935 and 1975. He was earlier noted for The Story of Philosophy (1926), described asa groundbreaking work that helped to popularize philosophy He conceived of philosophy as total perspective or seeing things sub specie totius (a phraseinspired by Spinozas sub specie aeternitatis). He sought to unify and humanize the great bodyof historical knowledge, which had grown voluminous and become fragmented into esotericspecialties, and to vitalize it for contemporary application.The Durants were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1968 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977.Early life Durant was born in North Adams, Massachusetts, to French-Canadian Catholic parents Joseph Durant and Mary Allard, who had been part of the Quebec emigration to the United States.In 1900, Durant was educated by the Jesuits in St. Peters Preparatory School and, later, Saint Peters College in Jersey City, New Jersey. Historian Joan Rubin writes of that period, Despitesome adolescent flirtations, he began preparing for the vocation that promised to realize hismothers fondest hopes for him: the priesthood. In that way, one might argue, he embarked ona course that, while distant from Yales or Columbias apprenticeships in gentility, offeredequivalent cultural authority within his own milieu.In 1905, he began experimenting with socialist philosophy, but, after World War I, he beganrecognizing that a lust for power underlay all forms of political behavior. However, evenbefore the war, other aspects of his sensibility had competed with his radical leanings, notes Rubin. She adds that the most concrete of those was a persistent penchant for philosophy.