Will Durant

Lore & Background

William James Durant was born in North Adams, Massachusetts, to French-Canadian Catholic parents. He graduated from Saint Peter's College in 1907 and later taught Latin and French at Seton Hall College. After leaving teaching, he worked at the Ferrer Modern School, an experiment in libertarian education, and married the 15-year-old Ariel Kaufman in 1913. To support his family, he began lecturing in a Presbyterian church, and the material from those lectures became the starting point for The Story of Civilization.

Durant conceived of philosophy as total perspective, seeing things sub specie totius, inspired by Spinoza's sub specie aeternitatis. He sought to unify and humanize the voluminous and fragmented body of historical knowledge for contemporary application. His early socialist leanings shifted after World War I, and he came to recognize a 'lust for power' underlying political behavior. By 1914, he began to reject intimations of human evil and retreated from radical social change, blending love, philosophy, Christianity, and socialism into his lifelong worldview.

Durant earned a PhD from Columbia University in 1917 and wrote his first book, Philosophy and the Social Problem, that same year. The Story of Philosophy originated as a series of Little Blue Books and became a bestseller when published as a hardcover in 1926, giving the Durants financial independence to travel and write The Story of Civilization. They strove to create 'integral history,' resisting specialized approaches and covering not only wars and politics but also culture, art, philosophy, religion, and everyday life.

Reader's Guide

Will Durant's significance lies in his monumental effort to synthesize and popularize the vast sweep of human history for a general audience. With his wife Ariel, he produced The Story of Civilization, an eleven-volume series that sought to present history as a coherent, moral narrative rather than a collection of specialized studies. Their work was recognized with the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1968 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977. Durant's earlier book, The Story of Philosophy, similarly made philosophical ideas accessible to lay readers, helping to spark widespread interest in the subject. His concept of philosophy as 'total perspective' reflected his desire to see human experience whole, a goal that guided his writing. The Durants' approach, while sometimes criticized for its moralizing tone, influenced how history could be presented as a story of civilization's rise and fall, emphasizing the dominance of the strong over the weak and the clever over the simple. Their legacy endures in the continued readership of their works and in the model they provided for integrating cultural, political, and social history.

Did You Know?

• Durant's first book, Philosophy and the Social Problem, argued that philosophy had not grown because it refused to confront actual societal problems.
• He and his wife Ariel were jointly awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1968 for Rousseau and Revolution, the 10th volume of The Story of Civilization.
• Durant helped draft a 'Declaration of Interdependence' in 1945, which was read into the Congressional Record.
• The Durants left notes for a 12th volume, The Age of Darwin, and an outline for a 13th, The Age of Einstein.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"William James Durant (5 November 1885 – 7 November 1981) was an American historian, philosopher and writer, best remembered for his works The Story of Philosophy, and The Story of Civilization." — Will Durant "Sixty years ago I knew everything. Now I know nothing. Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance." — Will Durant "Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice." — Will Durant "Philosophy is a hypothetical interpretation of the unknown (as in metaphysics), or of the inexactly known (as in ethics or political philosophy); it is the front trench in the siege of truth." — Will Durant