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The Swerve
How the Renaissance Began
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The Swerve
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WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2012
Almost six hundred years ago, a short, genial man took a very old manuscript off a library shelf.
A riveting, exemplary tale of the great cultural "swerve" known as the Renaissance
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Description
A riveting, exemplary tale of the great cultural "swerve" known as the Renaissance.
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2012
Almost six hundred years ago, a short, genial man took a very old manuscript off a library shelf. With excitement, he saw what he had discovered and ordered it copied. The book was a miraculously surviving copy of an ancient Roman philosophical epic, On the Nature of Things by Lucretius, and it changed the course of history.
He found a beautiful poem of 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. These ideas fuelled the Renaissance, inspiring Botticelli, shaping the thoughts of Montaigne, Darwin and Einstein.
An innovative work of history by one of the world's most celebrated scholars and a thrilling story of discovery, The Swerve details how one manuscript, plucked from a thousand years of neglect, made possible the world as we know it.
Winner of the 2011 National Book Award for Nonfiction
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt is praised for being superbly readable and exciting, with reviews highlighting its clarity and verve. The book is celebrated as a superb piece of history with a concise and fluent narrative, recognized for telling a remarkable story. It is described as dazzling and an outstanding assessment of the birth of philosophical modernity, transporting readers to the dawn of the Renaissance. The book is also noted for its wonderfully illuminating take on Renaissance history from a master historian.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780099572442
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 06 September 2012
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Vintage
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 22.0mm
Width: 129.0mm
Height: 198.0mm
Weight: 267g
Pages: 368
About the Author
Stephen Greenblatt is Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. He is the author of twelve books, including The Swerve- How the World Became Modern, which won the National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize, as well as the New York Times bestseller Will in the World- How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare and the classic university text Renaissance Self-Fashioning. He is General Editor of The Norton Anthology of English Literature and of The Norton Shakespeare, and has edited seven collections of literary criticism.
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