Suggestion: The Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant

Please consider trying to add the 11-volume series The Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant. Although it is not why I am interested in having a Logos version, this particular set has a lot it could contribute to the Timeline feature in Logos if it were tagged accordingly.

http://www.amazon.com/Story-Civilization-11-Set/dp/1567310230/ref=sr_1_1?s=books

For anyone not familiar with this set, the volumes are:

1. Our Oriental Heritage

2. The Life of Greece

3. Caesar and Christ

4. The Age of Faith

5. The Renaissance

6. The Reformation

7. The Age of Reason Begins

8. The Age of Louis XIV

9. The Age of Voltaire

10. Rousseau and Revolution

11. The Age of Napoleon

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

George Somsel

I remember pouring over their volume on The Reformation for a paper in HS. It was quite helpful, but that was many, many years ago (remember, I'll be 39 on my next birthday). I wonder if there is something comparable which is newer.

Matthew

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/709593#Comment_709593

I wonder if there is something comparable which is newer.

If there is, that would be fine with me, but I do not know of any work similar in its scope. The earliest volumes were written in the 1930s, so they definitely could not be considered current scholarship. It is not quite a parallel situation, but even if there were a newer set out, I believe this set still has merit, just as there is still merit in owning the 1915 ISBE. Maybe this is a situation where obtaining rights would be easier due to the product's age? Both authors are deceased. I do not know who currently holds rights. Some volumes definitely are not public domain yet, as I believe the newest volumes were published in the 1970s.

EastTN

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/709642#Comment_709642

Maybe this is a situation where obtaining rights would be easier due to the product's age?

That would be great, especially if it resulted in a lower price.

Rosie Perera

[Y]

A magisterial work, and still a classic. It would be great to have this in Logos. I've never bought it in print, but would be happy to have it to poke through even if I probably wouldn't read the whole thing.

I'm sure it's dated and that much of the scholarship on those periods of history has been superseded by better works on the individual ages. But having the whole sweeping story in one set by well-respected authors would be great.

I view it as in the same class (in terms of grand scope, once high esteem, and having been surpassed but still valuable) as Edward Gibbon's 6-volume Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, which Logos carries.

Sergei Kochkin

This is a fabulous idea. I have the whole set in leather from Easton Press (www.eastonpress.com). It is my favorite history set. Unfortunately it only goes through the Age of Napoleon. I had this on software in the early Windows days (1990) and agree it was great to be able to search through this 11,000 page work electronically. The problem though is Logos tends to charge almost full retail for all its electronic books because of royalties and the work involved in codifying it to fit within the Logos search engine. So if I had this I would also like it to be coded by topic or subject; dumb searches on individual words are of little value. I would pay maybe $30 for such a resource but not much more. Same with the Great Books of the Western World.

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/710500#Comment_710500

The problem though is Logos tends to charge almost full retail for all its electronic books because of royalties and the work involved in codifying it to fit within the Logos search engine.

It's out of print so that might reduce the royalties they'd have to pay and could allow them to offer it for less. And if you get something like this while it's still in pre-pub you can often save 50% or more off the eventual price they're going to offer it for. So I could see this possibly going into pre-pub for $60-$90, but probably not as little as $30. It's not old enough to be offered in Community Pricing where they might be able to do it for that.

Great Books of the Western World

Yes, I'd like to see this series, too, though many of the books in it are already offered through other collections (e.g., The Harvard Classics and Fiction Collection and Perseus Classics Collection, the latter of which is free).