STORY OF CIVILIZATION, VOL VII: AGE OF REASON BEGINS: VOLUME VII (Story of Civilization)

From the Publisher

Part Two Of Two Parts

If there is a linchpin to understanding modern European history, it lies in the period of religious strife and scientific progress between the 1550s and 1650s. In The Age of Reason Begins, Will and Ariel Durant bring together a fascinating network of stories in their discussion of the bumpy road toward the Enlightenment. This is the age of great monarchs and greater artists: on the one hand, Elizabeth the First of England, Philip II of Spain, and Henry IV of France; on the other, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Montaigne, and Rembrandt. It also encompasses the heyday of Bacon, Galileo, Giordano Bruno and Descartes -- the fathers of modern science and philosophy. But it is equally an age of extreme violence, a moment in which all Europe was embroiled in the horrible Thirty Years' War -- in some respects, the real First World War. Whatever the case, this is a chapter in cultural history you can't set aside.

"Mr. and Mrs. Durant are admirably lucid.... This is a book that can be commended very warmly." (The New York Times)