The Swerve, How the World Became Modern

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction • Winner of the National Book Award • New York Times Bestseller • A Kirkus Reviews "Best Book of the 21st Century (So Far)" Renowned scholar Stephen Greenblatt brings the past to vivid life in what is at once a supreme work of scholarship, a literary page-turner, and a thrilling testament to the power of the written word. In the winter of 1417, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late thirties plucked a very old manuscript off a dusty shelf in a remote monastery, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and ordered that it be copied. He was Poggio Bracciolini, the greatest book hunter of the Renaissance. His discovery, Lucretius’ ancient poem On the Nature of Things, had been almost entirely lost to history for more than a thousand years. It was a beautiful poem of the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functions without the aid of gods, that religious fear is damaging to human life, that pleasure and virtue are not opposites but intertwined, and that matter is made up of very small material particles in eternal motion, randomly colliding and swerving in new directions. Its return to circulation changed the course of history. The poem’s vision would shape the thought of Galileo and Freud, Darwin and Einstein, and—in the hands of Thomas Jefferson—leave its trace on the Declaration of Independence.

What Hacker News says

gom_jabbarMar 2026

Absolutely. One of my favorite books about the power of books is The Swerve: How the World Became Modern (2011) by Stephen Greenblatt. It tells the story of the rediscovery of Lucretius's poem De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things), which was assumed lost.

thread

xtiansimonAug 2020

I suppose you’ve read that delightful summer read, Stephen Greenblatt, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern, (W.W. Norton, 2011).

thread

charlyslOct 2018

It is indeed. But even more so for me is that then Epicurus, starting from this, deducted a whole ethic that is essentially modern. If you haven't read it yet, I think you would appreciate an account of the whole story, of how it was supressed by the church for centuries and eventually triumphed: "The Swerve: How the World Became Modern" https://www.amazon.com/Swerve-How-World-Became-Modern/dp/039....

thread

charlyslFeb 2018

Spot on. I strongly recommend Russell's History of Western Philosophy to get a wider perspective and understanding of how and why thought systems evolved, much more insightful than knowing any particular philosophy in a vacuum, and to understand stoicisms place and how it primed the West for Christianity.

It is often claimed that the ancient greeks experimented with every possible philosophical system, of which stoicism is one of many. To me this ultimate freedom of thought, this willingness to challenge and explore ideas without fear of tradition and authority, and to create new ones and following them wherever they may lead, this open mindedness is one of their great contributions.

Of all these, Epicureism is possibly the one that has ultimately triumphed, via Lucrecius' De Rerum Natura. This point of view is wonderfully explained in The Swerve: How the World Became Modern. Absolutely fascinating how by starting by speculating that everyting that exists has an exclusively material substance and is made of atoms (he wasn't the first to speculate this though), Epicureus, via a long chain of reasoning, deducted an ethic that is essentially modern (albeit often misunderstood due to its suppression and distorsion by the christian tradition). 2300 years ago.

I wonder if A Man in Full novel by Tom Wolfe is a precursor of this stoicism trend.

thread

danschullerJul 2014

I really enjoyed "The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles".

I've have it recommended a few times but the title sounded a bit self help-like so I avoided it. Eventually I did ready and it's pretty great. It covers how people manage to get work done, which is pretty important for everyone.

Last year I read The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt. It's non-fiction, though I believe the central premise is a little tongue in cheek. An ancient Roman manuscript that's rediscovered and helps set off the enlightenment and our modern culture.

For Buddhism I enjoyed Zen Flesh, Zen Bones by Paul Reps, mainly a collection of translated koans. If you've never it I recommend Godel Escher Bach : An Eternal Golden Braid, as it also likes to play with Buddhism. It's a book that tends to get a bit of hate but I found it quite fun and playful.

Non-fiction for sci-fi and fantasy: Robin Hobb and Vernor Vinge.

thread

deStabDec 2011

The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt

thread