We had an interesting discussion on the group about what books should belong on the shelves of the restoration-minded.

Let me offer a left-field suggestion:  The Story of Civilization series by Will and Ariel Durant.  Yes, at eleven volumes and thousands upon thousands of pages, it seems a daunting work, but appearances can be deceiving.

Durant was a baptized Catholic, educated by old-school Jesuits at Fordham University, something of a sympathetic skeptic during most of his academic career before being reconciled with the Church before his death. 

The conceit of TSOC is an attempt to chart the development of thought, culture and art from the dawn of civilization to the present.  Political history is covered in passing, but not in great detail.  If you look at the introductions to the later volumes, the Durants offer up rueful acknowledgments that time successfully edited the process down to the fall of Napoleon in 1815.  I think it would have been ideal had they made it to the advent of Marx and Darwin, but no matter–what they managed to achieve is remarkable enough.  Namely, a readable overview of Western culture up through the Age of Revolutions, done with great wit, capable compression, and sometimes fiery judgment.  For instance, his take on Calvin’s thought (as opposed to the man himself) is one that peals like a prophetic judgment, whether one agrees or not:

“We shall always find it hard to love the man who darkened the human soul with the most absurd and blasphemous conception of God in all the long and honored history of nonsense.”

Sure, there are some clunkers–in The Life of Greece volume I am presently reading, he’s apt to see glib parallels between the Greek myths and Christianity, hinting broadly at latter borrowing from the former.  But it’s done without in-your-face hostility.  In fact, it becomes ever more apparent in later volumes that while you can take the boy out of the Church, you can never quite take the Church out of the boy, so to speak.

 Which leads me back to an important point–I know this not from having read each volume cover to cover (yet), but rather from sampling around from the volumes on various topics that interest me, curious to see Durant’s take.  The way the books are structured, you can actually do that.  Curious about a particular thinker or artist from a certain time period?    Check the index and you will find a multi-page summary of his work, rendered in a fascinating mini-biography and analysis.

 What Durant manages to do is show how we got where we are today, minus a few thinkers who have disturbed the equilibrium, for good or ill, since 1815.  If you are looking for insights into the present condition, TSOC belongs on your shelf.  And it’s not difficult to find at a reasonable price.  The Durant series has been cited as the work that built Simon and Shuster into a publishing giant, so volumes abound, easily collectible in complete sets.  I got ours complete for $40.