
The Swerve
How the World Became Modern
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Narrated by:
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Edoardo Ballerini
About this listen
Pulitzer Prize, General Nonfiction, 2012
National Book Award, Nonfiction, 2012
Renowned historian Stephen Greenblatt’s works shoot to the top of the New York Times best-seller list. With The Swerve, Greenblatt transports listeners to the dawn of the Renaissance and chronicles the life of an intrepid book lover who rescued the Roman philosophical text On the Nature of Things from certain oblivion.
Nearly six hundred years ago, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late 30s took a very old manuscript off a library shelf, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and ordered that it be copied. That book was the last surviving manuscript of an ancient Roman philosophical epic by Lucretius—a beautiful poem containing the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functioned without the aid of gods, that religious fear was damaging to human life, and that matter was made up of very small particles in eternal motion, colliding and swerving in new directions.
The copying and translation of this ancient book—the greatest discovery of the greatest book-hunter of his age—fueled the Renaissance, inspiring artists such as Botticelli and thinkers such as Giordano Bruno; shaped the thought of Galileo and Freud, Darwin and Einstein; and had a revolutionary influence on writers such as Montaigne and Shakespeare, and even Thomas Jefferson.
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- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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This enthralling book charts the family's huge influence on the political, economic, and cultural history of Florence. Beginning in the early 1430s with the rise of the dynasty under the near-legendary Cosimo de Medici, it moves through their golden era as patrons of some of the most remarkable artists and architects of the Renaissance, to the era of the Medici Popes and Grand Dukes, Florence's slide into decay and bankruptcy, and the end, in 1737, of the Medici line.
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Laundry list of names
- By Elizabeth W on 01-02-17
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Epicurus of Samos: His Philosophy and Life
- All the Principal Source Texts
- By: Epicurus, Crespo
- Narrated by: James Gillies, Jonathan Booth
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Epicurus of Samos (341-270 BCE) was the founder of the philosophical system to which he gave his name: Epicureanism. It is a label that is often misused and misunderstood today, with ‘a life of pleasure’ as the key aim misinterpreted as a life of indulgence. In fact, the philosophy of Epicurus demonstrated also by his life, was anything but! He established a school in Athens called The Garden, underpinned by his system of ethics.
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Not What It Seems And Full Of Hypocrisy
- By Jock Little on 05-27-22
By: Epicurus, and others
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The Retreat of Western Liberalism
- By: Edward Luce
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Retreat of Western Liberalism, Luce makes a larger statement about the weakening of western hegemony and the crisis of liberal democracy - of which Donald Trump and his European counterparts are not the cause, but a terrifying symptom. Luce argues that we are on a menacing trajectory brought about by ignorance of what it took to build the West, arrogance towards society's economic losers, and complacency about our system's durability.
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Interesting, but biased.
- By Megan Tilly on 12-18-17
By: Edward Luce
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The Bookseller of Florence
- The Story of the Manuscripts That Illuminated the Renaissance
- By: Ross King
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 18 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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The Renaissance in Florence conjures images of beautiful frescoes and elegant buildings - the dazzling handiwork of the city's skilled artists and architects. But equally important for the centuries to follow were geniuses of a different sort: Florence's manuscript hunters, scribes, scholars, and booksellers, who blew the dust off a thousand years of history and, through the discovery and diffusion of ancient knowledge, imagined a new and enlightened world.
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Great book, Horrible narrator
- By Sergio Remon on 07-01-21
By: Ross King
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The Cave and the Light
- Plato Versus Aristotle, and the Struggle for the Soul of Western Civilization
- By: Arthur Herman
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 25 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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The Cave and the Light reveals how two Greek philosophers became the twin fountainheads of Western culture, and how their rivalry gave Western civilization its unique dynamism down to the present.
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All of Western Philosphy Leads to Ayn Rand?!?
- By Leslie on 06-22-15
By: Arthur Herman
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The Florentines
- From Dante to Galileo: The Transformation of Western Civilization
- By: Paul Strathern
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 14 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Between the birth of Dante in 1265 and the death of Galileo in 1642, something happened that transformed the entire culture of Western civilization. Painting, sculpture, and architecture would all visibly change in such a striking fashion that there could be no going back on what had taken place. Likewise, the thought and self-conception of humanity would take on a completely new aspect. Sciences would be born - or emerge in an entirely new guise.
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Narrator ruins the narrative
- By amavita on 03-24-22
By: Paul Strathern
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The Age of Extremes
- 1914-1991
- By: Eric Hobsbawm
- Narrated by: Hugh Kermode
- Length: 25 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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In the short century between 1914 and 1991, the world has been convulsed by two global wars that swept away millions of lives and entire systems of government. Communism became a messianic faith and then collapsed ignominiously. Peasants became city dwellers, housewives became workers - and, increasingly leaders. Populations became literate even as new technologies threatened to make print obsolete. And the driving forces of history swung from Europe to its former colonies.
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Gain without Pain
- By Broken Luck on 07-25-21
By: Eric Hobsbawm
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Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician
- By: Anthony Everitt
- Narrated by: John Curless
- Length: 15 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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In this dynamic and engaging biography, Anthony Everitt plunges us into the fascinating, scandal-ridden world of ancient Rome in its most glorious heyday. Accessible to us through his legendary speeches but also through an unrivaled collection of unguarded letters to his close friend Atticus, Cicero comes to life here as a witty and cunning political operator.
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An eloquent man, and a patriot
- By Darwin8u on 01-19-15
By: Anthony Everitt
The narrator is also wonderful. The right pace and a clear voice.
Wonderful
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What made the experience of listening to The Swerve the most enjoyable?
The premise of this book and the supporting historical detail was well researched and interesting.What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?
However, to create a "book-length" book, this premise is restated, repeated and so padded that it quickly became annoying. It would have made a very nice monograph at less than half the length.Have you listened to any of Edoardo Ballerini’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
Mr. Ballerini is easy to listen to and did a fine job with his narration.Masters Thesis, padded
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Academic
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The book is about a former secretary to several popes who becomes the greatest book hunter of the Renaissance. His greatest find in a remote German monastery is a copy of Lucretius’ poem “On the Nature of Things,” which had been lost to history for well more than a thousand years. Along the way of this search there is fascinating exploration of the history of book collecting (especially the classics), paper making over the centuries, the formation of libraries, and how books survived from ancient Rome and Greece due to being copied for generations by monks. But the true power of the book is that Lucretius recognized that all matter is composed of atoms swerving in new directions and thus subject to the forces of evolution. This provides the basis for humanism which recognizes that virtue is achieved through pleasure (friends, literature, art) and not through self-denial (the religious fear underlying subjecting oneself to the orthodoxy of the church to please God). The subversive poem, written before the time of Christ, inspired the thinking and discoveries of Galileo, Freud, Darwin, and Einstein as well as Shakespeare and Thomas Jefferson.
Powerful, extraordinary, deeply insightful
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Interesting, but very long
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What did you love best about The Swerve?
The storyline is very interesting. I really wanted to know how it all turned out in the end and I learned something new at every listening.What did you like best about this story?
Learning lots about the history of the time.Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
NO!Any additional comments?
The story is interesting, the length and depth are important to the overall tone and understanding. Unfortunately for me, sometimes it just bored me. I found I couldn't listen to it during my commute because it encouraged nodding off! I've listened to other histories and biographies without this outcome but don't think it was the narrator, he was fine, professional. I put to good use the variable narrator speed on the Android app. I might have given up without it and I really wanted to finish it.So interesting and so boring at the same time!
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Any additional comments?
This book is wonderful. It is a story that everyone should know. I was stunned by accomplishments of people thousands of years ago and how ignorance destroyed much of the knowledge our ancestors tried to bequeath to us.I was amazed!
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A Little too Long with Little Developments
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I loved the juxtaposition of the two time periods, medieval thought dominated by religious dogma verses Ancient Greek Epicureanism which embodies tranquility and the pursuit of happiness. Greenblatt wonderfully weaves the histories of the two together. Although the title is a bit overarching (how the world became modern), I definitely enjoyed this book and learned a great deal. If you’re into history give this one a listen.
AUDIBLE 20 REVIEW SWEEPSTAKES ENTRY
The rediscovery of a nearly lost book
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Buy it!
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