Talk:The Story of Civilization

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this full article was taken from http://www.answers.com/topic/the-story-of-civilization —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.108.112.146 (talk • contribs) 21:02, 14 August 2006

Actually, answer.com took it from Wikipedia. --Gmaxwell 22:48, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Links for each volume.

In October 2006, I did a lot of work to link the critical ideas from each volume title to the appropriate general history articles.

In November 2006, an editor swept through this page using WP:AWB . This program automatically enforces a wikipedia policy against links in headings, so killed my work.

Since the world is not perfect, and since I want to avoid a repeat, I have now added a short sentence to each volume immediately after the heading. These sentences have the proper links, and should be safe from overzealous automated tools. -Arch dude 03:33, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Looks good :) and I fixed your link to AWB above. --Quiddity 04:27, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
Thanks! I try hard, but I am not a detail person. I should really sweep the article and add many more links. -Arch dude 01:14, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Criticisms

I added some defense of the volumes and Mr. Durants undertaking to the criticisms. As Mr. Durant himself admits that errors are inevitable in his work, I've used the opening of his first volume, the better to let him defend his own works. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 72.50.176.188 (talk)

[edit] Quotes

I'd like to see some quotes to give some flavor of the Durants' lively writing style. What do you think? Plazak 14:03, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

That'd be great. One of the best parts of reading his books is not just the history, but his wit and philosophical bent on the things he talks about.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 72.50.176.188 (talk)
Sounds good. The ones you had added seemed fine, except the couple that weren't indented enough, and that the book number scheme was broken (which I assume is why you reverted yourself). That could probably be fixed with a <br>. --Quiddity 17:38, 22 April 2007 (UTC)
  • Nice choice of quotes, if you've got more, by all means add them in.72.50.176.188 19:52, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] criticism

The defense of the Durants ought to be attributed. I agree with much of it (although also with many of the criticisms, which are undoubtedly true), but it needs to identify someone who actually says that, rather than just attributing it vaguely to "some". I also wonder if "frequent errors of fact" might be added to the criticism - for there are very frequent errors of fact. On the whole, it might be nice to find a balanced, sensible assessment of the work to quote - one that acknowledges both its strengths and its weaknesses, both of which are undoubtedly there. john k 08:21, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Manners and MOrals

It was an age of strict manners and loose morals.

Not up to much, but this is such a great quote because they basically say the same thing in just about every "Morals" and "Manners" section in the whole eleven volume series. Very typical and well-chosen. john k 08:28, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

ETA: THe "Art of Life" and "Life of Art" quote is also extremely typical - they love those kinds of inversions. NOw all we need is a passage in which three relatively obscure, preferably non-western, figures are compared in their relationship to one another to very famous exemplars, and we'll have the whole of the work. Something along the lines of "If X was the Socrates of 14th century German sock-making, then Y was his Plato and the more modest Z his Xenophon." john k 08:30, 14 November 2007 (UTC)