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Our Oriental Heritage

The Story of Civilization, Volume 1

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Our Oriental Heritage

By: Will Durant
Narrated by: Robin Field
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About this listen

The first volume of Will Durant's Pulitzer Prize-winning series, Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization, Volume I chronicles the early history of Egypt, the Middle East, and Asia. In this masterful work, readers will encounter:

  • Sumeria, birthplace of the first cities and written laws
  • the Egyptians, who perfected monumental architecture, medicine, and mummification more than 3,500 years ago
  • the Babylonians, who developed astronomy and physics, and planted the seeds of Western mythology
  • the Judeans, who preserved their culture forever in the immortal books of the Old Testament
  • the Persians, who ruled the largest empire in recorded history before Rome
  • Indian philosophy, Chinese philosophers, and Japanese Samurais
©2013 Will Durant (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc. World Ancient History Middle Ages Middle East Mythology China Africa Astronomy Imperialism Socialism Law Imperial Japan Social justice Morality Self-Determination Ancient Greece
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The prose is excellent, I enjoyed the narration - not perfect, but always clear. Eventually the narrator became a somewhat pleasing companion.

Durant has a unique perspective and a subtle sense of irony, he is positive and conveys his genuine enthusiasm for other cultures through the prism of this gentle philosopher's mind.

Towards the end of this volume, he predicts Japan would enter into military conflict with America in 1934. That is, 8 years before Pearl Harbour, this may not surprise everyone but it surprised me. He broadens our knowledge of the events that unfolded up until 1934.

Over and over you see the mistakes and folly of men and (few) women in power. And through it all, the idealists, artists and ordinary folk who strive to survive to make their civilisation succeed.

One thing for the purists, Durant is very generous with his opinions, this is his romanticised story (which is why the word history is not in the title). I loved it.

A unique perspective

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This book, and the entire series, is excellent. This book in particular is not read very well, it’s good, just not fantastic. All the others are read excellently. This title needs to be reread. (Or look on YouTube for the older ‘books on tape’ version that is excellently read).

Saying all that, it’s still one of the best books anyone can read. It was as accurate as Durant could make it. They have been peer reviewed and won awards. The view of the history and in extension, the world and its people, this series, cannot be understated. I find that I binge read this book. Like Netflix, just one more episode (chapter) and then I’ll go to sleep. Enjoy.

Love this book

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The first in the staggering and admirable effort of Will Durant.

It is by it's very nature a skimming across the surface of history. But, with the length of the book and it being the first in an eleven-part series, it is a 'detailed skim' if that makes any sense ... it doesn't does it ... oh well, we're sticking with it!

The book is very well written and I found it a joy to listen to from start to finish.

The narrator is great. I ranked him 4 / 5 more because I found him to talk very s l o w l y and found that I had to listen to it at 1.25 x or 1.5 x for it not to be frustrating but that is the only issue.

If you love 'holistic' history, get this!

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Surely a dated understanding of ancient history but a beautiful, sympathetic and vivid depiction of the life and thought of our ancestors. Surprisingly anti-imperialist and chiding of the immaturity of western civilisation, Durant was undoubtedly breaking many boundaries at the time. Top notch popular history with innumerable insights into our present circumstances even 90 years later. Well read by Robin Field. I will return to this many times!

An incredible view into ancient history

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What made the experience of listening to Our Oriental Heritage the most enjoyable?

Robin Field narrated this book brilliantly. Chapters are all out of sync though so I was forced to bookmark every chapter for future reference.

What did you like best about this story?

This book is a masterpiece of succinct comprehensive brevity and chronicles almost 7 millennia of the history of Asian civilisation as Western scholars understood it in the 1930's. This book will leave the reader/listener with knowledge of the oldest known roots of ancient civilisation and a firm understanding of the timeline of all the notable events in civil human development in the Orient from pre-biblical Mesopotamia and Egypt, through to Mughal and British India, as well as Imperial Japan and industrialising China.

Comprehensive Volume on Asian Civilisation

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