NEWARK (NJ) STAR-LEDGER REVIEW by Raymond Frey - Will Durant (1885-1981) was perhaps the most widely read historian of the twentieth century.  In 1926, he published a book of brief essays on the great philosophers called “The Story of Philosophy.”  The smash best seller launched the fledgling publisher Simon and Schuster as a major force in publishing and introduced more people to philosophy than any other book.   

Eventually Durant became disenchanted with the puzzles and paradoxes of philosophy, and longed to write a comprehensive history of civilization.  In 1935, he embarked on a project to chronicle its entire scope and sweep; “The Story of Civilization” grew into a work of 11 massive volumes and took forty-six years to complete.   

In later volumes he shared the title page with his wife Ariel, who increasingly contributed to this enormous task during their sixty-eight years of marriage.  Every one was a bestseller, and volume seven, “Rousseau and Revolution,” won a Pulitzer Prize in 1968.  

Durant employed a narrative writing style he called "integral" history.  Believing that the usual method of writing history in distinct sections--political history, economic history, religious history, history of philosophy, history of science--did not capture the unity and flow of human life, and he instead wanted to present history as "one complex, moving picture."   Using thousands of slips of paper to organize the research--and writing in longhand--Durant would produce a finished manuscript every three or four years for 40 years, from 1935 to 1975.          

These efforts were scorned by many academic historians, who accused them of shoddy scholarship and an over-reliance on secondary sources.  One particularly blistering review said that in their books the Durants attempted "to reduce everything to a softminded pulp."  

Defenders said some scholars failed to understand that these works were intended to introduce non-specialist readers to the past, and any failings in scholarship were to be expected in such a monumental work and were of minor significance.  

Ultimately, in spite of the criticisms, the superb organization of their books, combined with and eminently readable style, won the Durants millions of fans.    

At Will Durant's death at 96, in 1981, his personal papers were dispersed among relatives, collectors, and archive houses.  Among these, scholar John Little recently discovered the previously unknown manuscript of “Heroes of History” completed shortly Durant died.  The original intention was to produce a script for a television series, but with failing health he decided to write 23 brief essays, of which he completed 21, to serve as an abbreviated version of “The Story of Civilization.”

Durant was always more interested in great people than great events.  He once wrote that "history operates in events but through persons; these are the voice of events, the flesh and blood upon which events fall."  

This book follows that same pattern, as he weaves the historical narrative around the heroes of the past.  Durant had a gift for summary.  His essay on the life and times of Jesus, for example, takes just eleven pages to tell this complex and moving story from birth to resurrection with amazing detail and clarity.

Other excellent essays are those of Julius Caesar-- "a great statesman (who) was not above vanity;" Leonardo da Vinci, who Durant calls "the most fascinating figure of the Renaissance;" and the Christian reformer Martin Luther: "The man who was to have more influence upon subsequent history than anyone but Copernicus and Columbus."

He carefully sets the historical, cultural, and political scene before presenting his heroes upon the stage of history.  This combination of biography and intellectual history is one of Durant's hallmarks, and it works exceedingly well in this book.  He also frequently speaks to his audience in the first person, as if reminiscing with the reader after a lifetime spent in chronicling the past.

With this last book, Durant posthumously comes full circle.  In “The Story of Philosophy,” he succeeded, in one book, in bringing the ideas of great philosophers within the reach of the average person.  Similarly, “Heroes of History” makes some of history's greatest personalities vivid to general readers.

This invitation to the grandeur of the past will surely send many back to Durant's earlier works to learn more.      

Raymond Frey is Associate Professor of History and Dean of Faculty at Centenary College in Hackettstown.  He is the author of William James Durant, An Intellectual Biography, published by Mellen Press.

WALL STREET JOURNAL REVIEW by Roger Kimball - "No man is a hero to his valet," said a 17th-century French society hostess.  "But not," riposted the philosopher Hegel more than a century later, "Because the hero is not a hero, but because the valet is a valet."

In fact, Hegel was unfair to valets, who as a class are at least as great-souled as German philosophers. (Consider Jeeves.)  The taste, the need, for heroes is inversely proportional to a society's level of self-satisfaction.  If we have heard a great deal about heroes since September 11, it is at least partly because our complacency was assaulted that day along with the Twin Towers.  And just as recent events have called forth heroic acts, they may also reawaken our capacity to value heroes, which is part of a larger capacity to value greatness.

Complacent ages neither cultivate nor willingly acknowledge greatness.  In 1840, when Thomas Carlyle delivered his lectures "On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History," he could count on a robust appetite for greatness among his readers.  The history of the world, Carlyle wrote, is "at bottom the History of the Great Men who have worked" in it.  For Carlyle and his readers greatness sparked emulation.  "We cannot look, however imperfectly, upon a great man without gaining something by him.  He is the living light-fountain, which it is good and pleasant to be near."

Our own age is quite different.  In recent years we have been favored with a great deal of "history from below" -- that is, history detailing the experience of workers, housewives, servants, criminals and even madmen.  This close-to-the-ground perspective often entails an impatience with greatness, even a disapproval of it, since it is the great, presumably, who oppress those beneath them.  In the wake of September 11, I suspect we will be subjected to rather less of this reductive formula.

Instead, there is bound to be a renaissance of interest in heroes. The republication of Gustav Schwab’s "Gods and Heroes of Ancient Greece" will speak to that interest, as will "Heroes of History," Will Durant’s posthumously published compilation of highlights from "The Story of Civilization," the 11-volume panorama of world history that he and his wife, Ariel, published over the course of some 50 years.

When I was in graduate school, it was fashionable to look down on the Durants -- without, of course, actually reading them.  Their work was thought to be superficial and, even worse, naively affirmative.  But even its detractors could not deny that it possessed a sweep and robustness of which even Carlyle would approve.  "Heroes of History" was Will Durant's effort to trace in one short volume a series of cultural peaks.  He managed to complete 21 out of a projected 23 chapters before his death in 1981, at age 96.

"Heroes of History" is a lesson in the diversity of greatness.  Durant marches briskly across the pages of history -- India from Buddha to Indira Ghandi, the classical world from Pericles to Nero, Christian Europe from Augustine to the Reformation -- holding up for our admiration the intrigues and exploits of soldiers, saints, scientists, statesmen and scribes.  His heroes are men of genius, energy and will, not necessarily rectitude.

Writing about Alexander the Great, Durant registers his drunkenness, promiscuity and cruelty but also the amazing gifts -- the charisma, military acumen and physical skill -- that allowed Alexander to conquer most of the known world, repulsing with 30,000 men the 600,000 amassed by Darius III.  "We admire him (as we admire Napoleon)," Durant writes, "Because he stood alone against half the world, and because he encourages us with the thought of the incredible power that lies potential in the individual soul."

True enough, but it is well to remember that the exalted word "hero" is often coupled with the worst turns of fate.  "Show me a hero," F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, "and I will write you a tragedy."  When Emerson, in "The Uses of Great Men," said that "every hero becomes a bore at last," he forgot that most heroes do not live to enjoy "at last."

Mr. Kimball's latest book is Experience Against Reality (Ivan R. Dee).

FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM REVIEW by Jack Z. Smith - If you're a dyed-in-the-wool, nose-in-the-air literary snob, or a passionless, just-give-me-the-facts professor of world history, Will Durant's Heroes of History may not be the book for you.

Or, at least, you would certainly pretend that it isn't.

But if you're a six pack-and-cheeseburger bloke such as myself - someone whom literary critics might sniffily refer to as a "general reader" of history - you'll treasure Durant's 329-page book subtitled "A Brief History of Civilization From Ancient Times to the Dawn of the Modern Age." It's an entertaining, informative and passionate stroll through select portions of history, ranging from ancient Egypt to the Italian Renaissance. Heroes offers revealing glimpses of such history makers as Confucius, Euripides, Alexander the Great, Jesus, Julius and Augustus Caesar, Lorenzo de Medici, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Martin Luther, Ignatius Loyola, Queen Elizabeth I, William Shakespeare and Francis Bacon.

Durant died in 1981, at age 96. He and his wife, Ariel (who died 13 days before him), wrote The Story of Civilization, an 11-volume masterpiece that consumed 46 years of their lives. One volume, Rousseau and Revolution, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1968.

Durant was nearing completion of Heroes of History when he died. The manuscript was found 20 years later in the garage of a granddaughter's home.

Millions of people have enjoyed the Durants' works, which give an overview of more than 100 centuries of history and were written for broad consumption. While some historians and literary critics have questioned the Durants' scholarship - getting to the point has never been a strong suit of most historian-writers - Will Durant's awesome range of knowledge is manifest in Heroes of History.

The book has drawn some semi-justifiable criticism for being overly Eurocentric and for paying insufficient attention to women (though there are some absorbing insights into the women of ancient Egypt and Elizabeth I, who ruled England during its heady days in the late 16th century). But Heroes' attributes far outweigh its shortcomings. Whether describing the personal traits that made Alexander the Great so great, or explaining how the confessional box of Catholic churches was darkened so that priests would not feel tempted by comely penitents, Durant writes in an engaging style that makes history real and fascinating - and whets your appetite for more.

THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT (Norfolk, Va). REVIEW By Barbara Spigel - In 1935, Will and Ariel Durant published the first book of their 11-volume work, "The Story of Civilization." In 1977, at the age of 92, four years before his death, Durant decided to publish an abbreviated version, to be called "Heroes of History." Some 20 years later the unfinished manuscript was discovered by John Little, the executor of the Durant Literary Estate. Durant completed 21 of 23 intended chapters of this extraordinary book, which introduces history as a form of philosophy.

A major literary event, "Heroes of History" explores the accomplishments of ancient China, of India, Greece, Rome and medieval Europe, and emphasizes the key figures dealt with at greater length in "The Story of Civilization."

Durant was possibly the best-known teacher of history and philosophy of his generation. His wife, Ariel, collaborated with him on “The Story of Civilization,” and on a companion book, “The Lessons Of History,” which they called, “A survey of human experience.”

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and recipient of the Medal of Freedom, Will Durant maintained that history is not merely a "warning reminder of man's follies and crimes… as Voltaire and Gibbon concluded, but is rather “the attempt to achieve philosophical perspective by a study of events in time.”

The heroes of these events -- saints and statesmen; inventors and scientists; poets, artists, philosophers and musicians -- changed the face of civilization and thus history. Their efforts, their skill and their vision renew our faith in ourselves as they remind us of our potential for greatness.

Durant contends that we cannot Shape our future without knowledge of the past; to know the past is to have confidence in the future. One of his major thrusts is that history is a series of recurring sequences, an ebb and flow of morality such that, "A period of pagan license is followed by an age of puritan restraint and moral discipline."

He reminds us that 300 years before Plato, Heracleitus was fascinated by what seemed to him obvious: that change is universal, energy is indestructible and everlasting. He leaves us wondering how much lower moral and ethical behavior has to go before the next disciplinary turnaround.

For Durant, man is indeed the measure of all things, and his insights into history's most extraordinary figures are illustrated by his estimated of Leonardo da Vinci, who, for all his limitations and incompletions was, "The fullest man of the Renaissance, perhaps of all time."

There are times when the reader may wonder why Durant includes certain things and omits others. But his judgments are shrewd and incisive, his points are crisp and clear, and he never patronizes the reader. Thanks to his easy, uncomplicated style, the achievements of the past become strikingly clear.

Durant is one of the most influential of a growing number of voices reminding us that without a knowledge of the past there is no wisdom to guide us to the future, Perhaps it's time we took note of the fact.

Engrossing, informative and thoroughly enjoyable, "Heroes of History" is that rare book that invites superlatives. It's also a fitting tribute to Durant, 20 years after his death.

BOOK - THE MAGAZINE FOR READING LIFE REVIEW by Eric Wargo - Durant, a Pulitzer Prize- winning historian, conceived of a series of audio lectures condensing his eleven-volume opus, The Story of Civilization, for a modern audience; he was working on the project at the time of his death in 1981. The manuscript, lost until last winter, is being published for the first time. It begins with the great teachers of the Orient—Confucius and the Buddha—and moves through the best philosophers, poets and statesmen of Egypt, Greece and Rome, through the heroes of the Old Testament and New, and culminates with the guiding lights of the Renaissance and Reformation—Leonardo da Vinci, Martin Luther, William Shakespeare. It's history's greatest hits, you could say. That Durant viewed history as "philosophy teaching by examples" is clear on every page: These aren't just familiar textbook facts but the gripping anecdotes of extraordinary figures, their monumental choices and profound insights brought to life by a great storyteller.

BOOKLIST REVIEW by Jay Freeman - Before his death in 1981, esteemed historian Durant had completed 21 of a projected 23 chapters of this work, which was intended to serve as a condensed version of his landmark 11-volume series, The Story of Civilization (1935). The wonderfully lucid and almost poetic prose that characterized that series remains here. As always, Durant displays keen insights and passionate admiration for the accomplishments of varied civilizations, including those of ancient China, India, Rome, and medieval Europe. He is at his best when he analyzes those individuals who contributed mightily to the glories of their civilizations. Figures as diverse as Buddha, Confucius, Jesus, and Lorenzo de Medici are treated with both reverence and realism. For the general reader, this work will be both enjoyable and informative, providing a basis for those who wish to delve even deeper into the history of some of these civilizations. Jay Freeman Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

AMAZON.COM REVIEW by Gregory MacNamee - "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....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...fans of Durant's brand of sweeping narrative history will enjoy having these final words from the master.

PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY REVIEW - This posthumous collection of essays by a Pulitzer Prize winner targets those who don't know much about history. Durant, who died in 1981 at the age of 96, is best known for the multivolume history of the world, "The Story of Civilization," he wrote with his wife, Ariel. In these recently discovered essays, he again displays his talents for popularizing history, most notably a remarkable ability to summarize complicated thoughts and events in a few succinct words: this book of "heroes" covers figures ranging from Nero to Shakespeare and spans more than 2,000 years. After the first three essays, on Confucius, Buddha and Egypt's Ikhnaton, Durant turns his attention to Greece, Rome and the rise of the West. He devotes several chapters to Jesus and his followers over the centuries, asserting that that the study of religion "sheds more light upon the nature and possibilities of man and government than the study of almost any other subject or institution open to human inquiry."...This book is likely to find a wide audience among those looking for an introduction to world history.

FROM BARNES & NOBLE - Appearing 20 years after his death at the age of 96, Heroes of History is an abbreviated version of his universally acclaimed 11-volume epic, The Story of Civilization. Durant ably guides the reader through thousands of years of human history -- all the way from Confucius to the 18th century. Thus, Heroes of History is a wonderful tribute to the legendary Durant, and a treat for history fans everywhere.

For more on the new book and other information on coming projects please read the interview with editor John Little by clicking here.

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