Historical Figures Codexery

Will Durant

American historian and philosopher, author of The Story of Civilization

The eleven-volume series The Story of Civilization, co-authored by Will Durant and his wife Ariel, is what made the American historian and philosopher most famous.[1] Ariel Durant collaborated with her husband on that series, which saw publication from 1935 through 1975.[1]

Quick Facts

Born
5 November 1885
Birthplace
North Adams, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died
7 November 1981
Place of death
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place
Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery
Occupation
  • Historian
  • writer
  • philosopher
  • teacher
Genre
Non-fiction
Subject
  • History
  • philosophy
  • religion

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

Durant was born in North Adams, Massachusetts, to French-Canadian Catholic parents who had emigrated from Quebec.[2] From 1907 to 1911, he taught Latin and French at Seton Hall College.[3] After leaving Seton Hall, he taught at the Ferrer Modern School from 1911 to 1913, which the Who's Who of Pulitzer Prize Winners described as "an experiment in libertarian education"[4] In 1913, he resigned his teaching post and married the 15-year-old Ariel Kaufman.[5]

He was director and lecturer at the Labor Temple School in New York City from 1914 to 1927 while pursuing his PhD.[5] His first book, Philosophy and the Social Problem, was written in 1917 while he worked on his doctorate.[6] The Story of Philosophy originated as a series of educational pamphlets and became a bestseller when republished as a hardcover in 1926.[7] Durant completed his bachelor's degree at St. Peter's College in 1907 and his philosophy doctorate at Columbia University in 1917.[8]

What the cited sources add

In that same article, Durant stated he was "prepared to have you put me down as an atheist" but considered himself "a Christian in the literal and difficult sense"[9] Balakrishna's 2019 article for The Dharma Dispatch describes Durant as "perhaps the only Western scholar-historian-commentator who spoke with blunt candour against the British colonialism of Bharatavarsha"[10] Durant wrote in The Case for India that the British conquest was "the invasion and destruction of a high civilisation by a trading company utterly without scruple or principle"[10] The America Magazine article also notes that Durant signed his letters with the phrase "Another Lover of Christ" above his name.[9]

A 2015 America Magazine piece reports that Durant's granddaughter Monica Mihell, while getting ready to move after selling her house, found drafts of the manuscript Fallen Leaves in a box more than three decades after Durant's death.[9]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Will Durant" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Rogers, "The Papers of Will Rogers", University of Oklahoma Press, December 2013, p. 393 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Will Durant" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Will Durant", Freedom From Religion Foundation, November 5, 1980; Brennan, "Who's Who of Pulitzer Prize Winners", Oryx Press, 1999, p. 257 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Will Durant" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "William Durant - Stealth Seminarian - Seton Hall University", www.shu.edu; Brennan, "Who's Who of Pulitzer Prize Winners", Oryx Press, 1999, p. 257 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Will Durant" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Brennan, "Who's Who of Pulitzer Prize Winners", Oryx Press, 1999, p. 257; Brennan, "Who's Who of Pulitzer Prize Winners", Oryx Press, 1999, p. 257; Durant, "Our Oriental Heritage", Simon & Schuster, 1935, p. 1051 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Will Durant" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Brennan, "Who's Who of Pulitzer Prize Winners", Oryx Press, 1999, p. 257 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Will Durant" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Norton, "A Symphony of History: Will Durant's The Story of Civilization", The Objective Standard, Spring 2011 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Will Durant" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "WUACC" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. "Will Durant", Freedom From Religion Foundation, November 5, 1980. facts only, no text reused. ffrf.org
  9. "An Examined Life", America Magazine, 2015-05-06. facts only, no text reused. americamagazine.org
  10. Balakrishna, "A Case for India: A Glimpse into how the British Plundered India and Destroyed a Great Civilisation", The Dharma Dispatch, 2019-03-15. facts only, no text reused. dharmadispatch.in

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Will Durant (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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