-
The Age of Voltaire
- A History of Civlization in Western Europe from 1715 to 1756, with Special Emphasis on the Conflict between Religion and Philosophy
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 42 hrs and 55 mins
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Publisher's summary
The Age of Voltaire, the ninth volume of The Story of Civilization, is an in-depth examination of France and England in the first half of the 18th century. In this masterful work, listeners will encounter:
- The English ideas that inspired the Enlightenment in France - skepticism, scientific experiment, constitutional government, "natural rights", and individual liberty
- The salons of Paris, where the wits and thinkers of all Europe gathered to exchange ideas
- The philosophers - intellectuals, playwrights, and poets who consulted and consorted with kings and queens
- Voltaire himself - the incarnation of the Enlightenment and a devotee of reason who still defended religious faith
- Mme. Pompadour, patron of the philosophers, who seduced King Louis XV and through him influenced French policy
- The Augustan Age in English literature - Alexander Pope's poetry, Jonathan Swift's satires, and the novels of Samuel Richardson and Henry Fielding
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Fatal Discord
- Erasmus, Luther, and the Fight for the Western Mind
- By: Michael Massing
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 34 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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This deeply textured dual biography and fascinating intellectual history examines two of the greatest minds of European history - Desiderius Erasmus and Martin Luther - whose heated rivalry gave rise to two enduring, fundamental, and often colliding traditions of philosophical and religious thought.
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Excellent work - up until the discussion of America
- By Michele Esposito on 08-24-19
By: Michael Massing
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Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World
- By: Leo Damrosch
- Narrated by: David Stifel
- Length: 20 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Jonathan Swift is best remembered today as the author of Gulliver’s Travels, the satiric fantasy that quickly became a classic and has remained in print for nearly three centuries. Yet Swift also wrote many other influential works, was a major political and religious figure in his time, and became a national hero, beloved for his fierce protest against English exploitation of his native Ireland. What is really known today about the enigmatic man behind these accomplishments? Can the facts of his life be separated from the fictions?
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JOHNATHAN SWIFT AND POWER OF THE PEN
- By chetyarbrough.blog on 09-30-14
By: Leo Damrosch
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God’s Secretaries
- The Making of the King James Bible
- By: Adam Nicolson
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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It is the greatest work of English prose ever written, and it is no coincidence that the translation was made at the moment “Englishness” and the English language had come into its first passionate maturity. Boisterous, elegant, subtle, majestic, finely nuanced, sonorous, and musical, the English of Jacobean England has a more encompassing idea of its own reach and scope than any before or since. It is a form of the language that drips with potency and sensitivity. The age, with all its conflicts, explains the book.
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Not what I was expecting
- By Greg on 12-29-13
By: Adam Nicolson
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Natasha's Dance
- A Cultural History of Russia
- By: Orlando Figes
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 29 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Beginning in the 18th century with the building of St. Petersburg - a 'window on the West' - and culminating with the challenges posed to Russian identity by the Soviet regime, Figes examines how writers, artists, and musicians grappled with the idea of Russia itself - its character, spiritual essence and destiny. He skillfully interweaves the great works - by Dostoevsky, Stravinsky, and Chagall - with folk embroidery, peasant songs, religious icons and all the customs of daily life, from food and drink to bathing habits to beliefs about the spirit world.
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A Kaleidescopic panorama of an enigmatic culture.
- By Tarquin on 02-13-19
By: Orlando Figes
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The Man Who Invented Fiction
- How Cervantes Ushered in the Modern World
- By: William Egginton
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
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In the early 17th century, a crippled, graying, almost toothless veteran of Spain's wars against the Ottoman Empire published a novel. It was the story of a poor nobleman, his brain addled from studying too many novels of chivalry, who deludes himself that he is a knight errant and sets off on hilarious adventures. That story, Don Quixote, went on to sell more copies than any other book beside the Bible, making its author, Miguel de Cervantes, the single most-read author in human history.
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Very Interesting and Informative, but Poorly Read
- By LCorSMT on 06-21-23
By: William Egginton
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Amazing Grace
- William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery
- By: Eric Metaxas
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
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Amazing Grace tells the story of the remarkable life of the British abolitionist William Wilberforce (1759-1833). This accessible biography chronicles Wilberforce's extraordinary role as a human rights activist, cultural reformer, and member of Parliament. At the center of this heroic life was a passionate 20-year fight to abolish the British slave trade, a battle Wilberforce won in 1807, as well as efforts to abolish slavery itself in the British colonies.
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A Marvelous Story Gloriously Told
- By Douglas on 02-24-13
By: Eric Metaxas
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Self Reliance
- By: Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Narrated by: Alana Munro
- Length: 1 hr and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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The most thorough statement of one of Emerson's recurrent themes, the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his or her own instincts and ideas. It is the source of one of Emerson's most famous quotations, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." This essay is a considered a watershed moment in which transcendentalism became a major cultural movement. An American classic.
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Don't buy this
- By Leah L on 07-31-16
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Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
- By: Charles MacKay
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 27 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Why do otherwise intelligent individuals form seething masses of idiocy when they engage in collective action? We may think that the Great Crash of 1929, junk bonds of the '80s, and over-valued high-tech stocks of the '90s are peculiarly 20th century aberrations, but Mackay's classic - first published in 1841 - shows that the madness and confusion of crowds knows no limits, and has no temporal bounds.
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People don't change
- By J. on 07-05-16
By: Charles MacKay
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The best support, history, and analysis on the story of philosophy. Particularly appropriate for the non-academic who is better served by the audiobook with extensive references.
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seriously with the sleepy elevator music
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This is a must for every Educated Person
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seriously with the sleepy elevator music
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Fantastic and insightful book
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Voltaire Collection includes three of Voltaire's most notable works: Micromegas, Candide, and Zadig. François-Marie Arouet, known by his nom de plume Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher famous for his wit.
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Nice compilation
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To an extraordinary extent we continue to live in the shadow of the classical world. At every level, from languages to calendars to political systems, we are the descendants of a “classical Europe,” using frames of reference created by ancient Mediterranean cultures. As this consistently fresh and surprising new audio book makes clear, however, this was no less true for the inhabitants of those classical civilizations themselves, whose myths, history, and buildings were an elaborate engagement with an already old and revered past - one filled with great leaders and writers....
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The Lessons of History was written in 1968 by Pulitzer Prize-winning historians Will and Ariel Durant. Originally, it was written as part of the authors' 11-volume The Story of Civilization. This book represents an overview of the themes and lessons observed from the last 5,000 years. (Disclaimer: This is NOT the original book. If you’re looking for the original book, it is available from Amazon and Audible.)
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Awesome summary from deep work
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The new single-volume edition of Conceived in Liberty is here! After so many years of having to juggle four volumes, the Mises Institute has finally put it all together in a single book. This makes it easier to listen to and makes clearer just what a contribution this book is to the history of libertarian literature. There's never been a better time to remember the revolutionary and even libertarian roots of the American founding, and there's no better guide to what this means in the narrative of the colonial period than Murray Rothbard.
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Learned more here than 4 yrs of college
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R. E. Lee by Douglas Southall Freeman was the recipient of the 1935 Pulitzer Prize for Literature. It was a richly deserved honor, for Freeman's biography of the distinguished Virginian went on to become one of the most celebrated of all American biographies, a favorite of General George Marshall and President Dwight Eisenhower, among many others. Since his death, thousands of American soldiers have sought to emulate Lee's example of virtue, courage, and duty.
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The rise of Rome is one of the great stories of world history and fortunately we have a reliable and at times an eyewitness account, from the Greek historian Polybius of Megalopolis. Polybius reports on the main confrontations with the authority of a man who was present at many events and also visited historic sites of importance to ensure his accounts of the past were accurate.
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One of the greatest works of history ever!
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Titus Livy's only known surviving work is a monumental history of Rome that was originally written in Latin. It is estimated that Livy's The History of Rome was written between 27 and 9 BC and covers the legends of Aeneas, the fall of Troy, the city's founding in 753 BC, and Livy's account ends with the reign of Emperor Augustus. The History of Rome is a must-have for anyone interested in ancient history and the Roman era. With colorful detail and intriguing insight, Titus brings to life some of the most turbulent times in human history.
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At a huge cost, the Red Army and the civilian population of Leningrad ultimately endured a bitter 900-day siege, struggling against constant bombing, shelling, and starvation. Throughout the siege, Soviet forces tried to break the German lines and restore contact with the garrison. To Besiege a City charts the first of these offensives which began in January 1942 and was followed by repeated assaults.
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Unbiased and Accurate
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Beginning with May 29, 1919, when photographs of the solar eclipse confirmed the truth of Einstein's theory of relativity, Johnson goes on to describe Freudianism, the establishment of the first Marxist state, the chaos of "Old Europe", the Arcadian 20s, and the new forces in China and Japan. Also discussed are Karl Marx, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Roosevelt, Gandhi, Castro, Kennedy, Nixon, the '29 crash, the Great Depression, Roosevelt's New Deal, and the massive conflict of World War II.
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The Anti-Howard Zinn
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What listeners say about The Age of Voltaire
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Michael
- 01-06-16
Voltaire, Frederick, and Bach, Oh My!
This is the 9th book of the 11 book excellent, integrated history, Story of Civilization series. For my review of the series as a whole see my review of “Our Oriental Heritage”. This volume covers 1715 to 1756 in Western Europe including the life and thought of Voltaire, Frederick the Great, Bach, Diderot, and the Encyclopediests. Even if you don’t like reading history, you should give this series a try. This series presents an integrated history of ideas, personalities, and the ebbs and flows of history, and not just dry retellings of events and dates.
The subtleties of the relationship between Voltaire and Frederick is explored, as is the sometimes strained relationships between the Encyclopediests. I have read other histories covering this period but they did not provided as balanced a presentation of these relationships. Much of this volume explores the conflict between religion and philosophy and science. Being an integrated history, the art, science, medicine, rulers, laws, religion, philosophy, and morals of the period are covered.
Wonderfully narrated by Grover Gardner.
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15 people found this helpful
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- Jeff
- 10-21-15
REAL TREASURE
There are plenty of good books, great books even, then there are books that are so remarkable that they transcend there intended purpose. completing this series has to change your life-why? because it puts everything you know into context which enables you to understand yourself,your community, your government your world and its times. beyond that its just all so fascinating and well written that its hard to imagine anything better. It makes me want to teach history but not the kind of boring trash I was exposed to in school. I try to tell my kids stories from history. At first they dont even want to hear it because history as they have experienced it and as I did is brutally boring- but if i can get them to listen they are fascinated but confused, they always say well why dont we learn cool stuff like that in school??. Good question. It not only saddens me it pisses me off. Anyway this is an outstanding book that could make a history lover out of anyone.
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14 people found this helpful
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- Arthur Pendragon
- 06-09-15
The Most Exquisite History Series
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Definitely. I have read dozens of books on world history, and none compare to the thoroughness, insight into the nature of man via history, and philosophical perspectives and penmanship of Will Durant.
Who was your favorite character and why?
N/A
What about Grover Gardner’s performance did you like?
Excellent narrator. His pace, tone, and inflections seem to communicate the meaning of the author's words in an enthusiastic, effective, and effortless manner.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
N/A
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9 people found this helpful
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- Gary
- 11-16-16
Brick by brick story telling
The authors look at the bricks that go into making up the building of civilization (and more so than with the other volumes in the series they mean the 'cultured man' (almost always a man in this telling)). But, sometimes to understand the whole building it's best not to dwell too much on each of the bricks separately as the authors do within this volume.
There is a lack of context for most of the stories told about the people featured in this volume. Very little on the moving pieces that make up Western Europe as a whole. But, with the Durant's one always gets a beautiful turn of phase and deep thoughts thrown in from time to time, "a mob never has reason, but only has feelings". Voltaire, is always interesting: 'the Catholics believe they are eating the body, the Protestants think they are eating both bread and the body, and the Calvinist think they are eating only bread", "is it one person, one nature, and one will, or two persons, one nature, and one will......".
But as with every book in the series there is a weird anachronistic racism or misogynism that lurks around. They should have known better by 1965: 'who can trust a woman on the opinion of another woman". I guess, they think that was a funny line, but why did you put that woman's opinion in the story if you were going to negate her opinion by negating the opinion of all women regarding other women. There's other misogynism in the story, but it wouldn't be the Durants if they didn't have those kind of anachronisms floating within their story.
I don't really need one hour on what they claim was the first English 'novel' "Pamela", and its follow up "Clarissa" each with their multiple volumes by Richardson (as I was thinking during the long summaries about each novel, "Pamela tells nothing, and Clarissa tells it all"), but I really did not need to know what they contained in such excruciating detail. A lot of this Volume shares too much. I didn't think that about the other three volumes I've read in this series.
Sometimes, it's better to ignore the bricks and talk about the building. Also, there is more to Western Europe than just England and France (and just a little bit of Germany, but that's mostly because Voltaire was there. Good gosh, there was a German enlightenment and part of it was taking place during that time). The world is a moving web with interactions beyond just two nodes especially since those nodes exist in the real world. Regretfully, audible doesn't have Paul Hazards "Crisis of the European Mind, 1680-1715". It's a better book, and I would recommend that instead.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Paul H Aube
- 02-18-17
Still the degradation of humanity
This part continues to show the conflict between wisdom, religion and secularism. Behind all this is the motivation for wealth, power and the unreachable illusion of freedom and happiness.
Having listened to the series since the beginning, the author presents an excellent continued history of the social developments as population and societies and ethnic groups evolve.
My point of view as of now is that humans are a sorry species. But the Story of Civilization is an excellent gem.
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4 people found this helpful
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- SDB Mike
- 01-12-16
Great book. Great reader.
I have been steadily listening to Durant's entire series for about 18 months. It is an excellent series and fuels further study -- and this is coming from an engineer by education and trade. Durant has only very subtle bias and makes this journey invaluable.
Gardner and Rodnicki (sp?) trade back and forth in the task of narration and are excellent.
Happy listening and learning!
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4 people found this helpful
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- KnightT
- 01-30-19
Voltaire and the expansion of modern philosophy
This work is a change of pace in the Durants’ wonderful history series. It documents Voltaire and the change in European philosophy that led to changes in religion and monarchy in Europe. These changes also influenced those in other countries, including the Americas. I enjoyed this emphasis on philosophy and how it overcame those who tried to suppress fundamental rights that we often take for granted today.
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-17-19
Poetry in prose.
The best and most comprehensive overview of European thought and history. The Durants spin wonderful factual stories from history and it's personalities. 5 readings are not enough to digest this multilayered pageant. Especially appreciate inclusion of the Turks and the Persians, so often omitted from European history. Not to mention Poland, Scandinavia, Russia, etc.
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- Nora
- 04-28-16
Excellent
Absolutely loved it, I'm looking forward to the next installment. Grover Gardner is an excellent narrator.
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- Coyle DeMoss
- 04-22-16
Age of Voltaire
Having not read the history of Europe before, I didn't know quite what to expect of Voltaire.
I voyaged into it as a continuation of the excellent research and writing ability of Will and Ariel Durant.
Now I have completed five of his books and hope to continue for the remainder of my life.
I find his writing a living history of time that preceded me. What a joy of detail!
Dr Coyle DeMoss
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