The Story of Civilization [complete]

What Hacker News says

1. agomez314Nov 2022
   SICP was a game-changer for the way I think about software and problem-solving in general. Reading Aristotle's works also opened my eyes to all the different ways one can think about a problem (it rids of you of the narrow problem-solving methods we use today). Reading about history in general also opened up my perspective to think about problems in new ways -I recommend the Story of Civilization by Will Durant.
   thread
2. inphovoreOct 2022
   The 11 volume set “The Story of Civilization” by Will and Ariel Durant

   You can find it on audiobook.

   This will bring you up to speed from the dawn of pre-civilization through the era of Napoleon.

   thread
3. innocentoldguyAug 2022
   I've enjoyed these books during long drives and flights to Japan during the past decade.

   The Dresden Files series, by Jim Butcher.

   The Mistborn series, by Brandon Sanderson.

   The Stormlight Chronicles, by Brandon Sanderson.

   Choose Your Own Autobiography, by Neil Patrick Harris.

   As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride, by Cary Elwes.

   Compleated Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin, by Mark Skousen.

   The Book of Mormon.

   The Story of Civilization Series, by Will Durant.

   The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams.

   Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.

   Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux.

   My Bondage and My Freedom, by Frederick Douglass.

   Show morethread
4. digitcatphdMay 2022
   I'm sure this is lacking, but I am attempting to assemble an alternative curriculum for entrepreneurship and would appreciate thoughts or assistance.

   Part I: Foundational Knowledge

   1. Story of Civilization by Will Durant, History

   Provides and encompassing digestible narrative of all of human civilization in chronological order. Assists entrepreneurs to better predict the future by studying the past.

   2. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, Philosophy

   Perspectives by Roman emperor and Philosopher about how to be a successful leader. A framework to be a successful leader, family person, and maintain self-discipline.

   3. Friedrich Nietzsche, Philosophy

   Collection of works by Philosopher Nietzsche which represent independent thought. Assists those to avoid herd mentality and perceive things from different perspectives.

   4. Emmanuel Kant, A Critique of Pure Reason, Crucial Reasoning

   Lays the foundation for a priori logic fundamental to critical reasoning. Assists those to analyze problems using deductive reasoning and methodologically solve problems.

   Part II: Emotional Intelligence

   1. Robert Green, Sociology

   Best summarized as ‘practical psychology & sociology’. Advantageous for understanding human nature for purposes of market research.

   2. How to Win Friends & Influence People, Dale Carnegie

   A manual for developing interpersonal relationship and the basis of business development Classic approaches to developing and nurturing professional interactions.

   Part III: Technical Knowledge

   1. Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid

   Outlines the basis behind AI algorithms Assists one to identify complex patterns and better analyze information.

   Show morethread
5. jreynolds999Oct 2019
   Hello HN!

   As a way to improve my inferential capacity, I decided a couple of years ago to make an honest attempt to learn as much as I could about general history. After graduating college, I didn't really have a sense of how to continue learning about historical events sans Google.

   I recently started reading Will Durant's historical series "The Story of Civilization", as I greatly enjoy his writing style. However, upon reading reviews of his work on Amazon I became aware of the (obvious) issues inherent with a work that was produced in the middle of the 20th century; the first book "Our Oriental History" is littered with anachronisms and racial biases that are common for the time (1940 on).

   This got me to thinking, there must be some [generally] agreed upon version of relatively objective history, albeit most likely split up between topics, time periods and authors.

   To bring it back to the original question: is it worth staying entirely within Will Durant's life work, or should I venture outside of his publications for specific topics? Most notably, I'm assuming that his understanding of Asian cultures is lacking, but also that there are other unknown unknowns.

   Please keep in mind this is not hypothetical, I am already committed to reading the entirety of his work and am merely looking to verify the accuracy of his accounts. I am placing a heavy preference on readability, so please keep that in mind as well.

   Show morethread
6. jolmgJul 2019
   Random book with no justification:

   Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization, Volume 1

   by Will Durant

   It's in the Internet Archive:

   https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.61276/page/n15

   The Story of Civilization is an 11-volume set of books[1], by the way.

   [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Civilization

   Show morethread