Wian Stipp
Books

Will Durant’s 100 Best Books for an Education

In The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time, the philosopher and historian Will Durant set out one hundred books for an education, spanning a wide range of subjects. Most of the list is as relevant today as when he published it, but some newer books better reflect the scientific advances made since. I have also added a few personal favourites.

The purpose of the list is a preliminary course of reading that builds a sturdy foundation in, and a deep understanding of, history, philosophy, literature, science, art, and culture.

Time required: four to six years at seven hours a week.

Black-and-white photograph of Will Durant, white-haired with a moustache, in a suit and tie, seated before a shelf of books.
Will Durant (1885–1981), philosopher and historian.

The list

added marks a book that is not in Durant’s original list.

Group IIntroductory Texts

  1. BRYSON, B., A Short History of Nearly Everything
  2. MARIEB and KELLER, Essentials of Human Anatomy & Physiology
  3. ATTIA, P., Outlive
  4. JAMES, W., The Principles of Psychology
  5. KAUFMAN, P., Poor Charlie's Almanackadded
  6. SUMNER, W. G., Folkways
  7. FRAZER, SIR JAS., The Golden Bough
  8. GIRARD, R., Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the Worldadded

Group IIAsia and Africa

  1. MARR, A., A History of the World; chs. 1-2.
  2. DURANT, W., Our Oriental Heritage
  3. READER, J., Africa: A Biography of the Continentadded
  4. VAN NORDEN and IVANHOE, Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophyadded
  5. The Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Ruth, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Amos, Micah, the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, and Epistles of St. Paul
  6. GOMBRICH, E. H., The Story of Art. 16th ed., chs. 1-2, 7.

Group IIIGreece

  1. DURANT, W., The Life of Greece
  2. HERODOTUS, Histories
  3. THUCYDIDES, History of the Peloponnesian War
  4. PLUTARCH, Parallel Lives. Loeb classical library ed. (esp. Lycurgus, Solon, Themistocles, Aristides, Pericles, Alcibiades, Demosthenes, Alexander)
  5. MURRAY, G., Greek Literature
  6. HOMER, Iliad
  7. HOMER, Odyssey
  8. AESCHYLUS, Prometheus Bound
  9. SOPHOCLES, Oedipus Tyrannus and Antigone
  10. EURIPIDES, all plays
  11. DIOGENES LAERTIUS, Lives of the Philosophers
  12. PLATO, Dialogues. esp. The Apology of Socrates, Phaedo and The Republic (sections 327-32, 336-77, 384-85, 392-426, 433-35, 481-83, 512-20, 572-95)
  13. ARISTOTLE, Nicomachean Ethics
  14. ARISTOTLE, Politics
  15. BAUER, S., The Story of Science; chs. 1-4
  16. GOMBRICH, E. H., The Story of Art. 16th ed., chs. 3-4

Group IVRome

  1. DURANT, W., Caesar and Christ
  2. MARR, A., chs. 3
  3. PLUTARCH, Parallel Lives. Loeb classical library ed. (esp. Cato Censor, Tiberius and Caius Gracchus, Marius, Sylla, Pompey, Cicero, Caesar, Brutus, Antony)
  4. LUCRETIUS, On the Nature of Things
  5. VIRGIL, Aeneid
  6. MARCUS AURELIUS, Meditations
  7. BAUER, S., The Story of Science; chs. 5-6
  8. GOMBRICH, E. H., The Story of Art. 16th ed., chs. 5-6
  9. GIBBON, E., Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Penguin Classics ed.

Group VThe Age of Christianity

  1. DURANT, W., The Age of Faith
  2. MARR, A., chs. 4
  3. OMAR KHAYYAM, Rubaiyat
  4. ABELARD and HELOISE, The Letters of Abelard and Heloise
  5. DANTE, Divine Comedy
  6. TAINE, H., History of English Literature, bk. 1
  7. CHAUCER, G., Canterbury Tales
  8. ADAMS, H., Mont St. Michel and Chartres
  9. GOMBRICH, E. H., The Story of Art. 16th ed., chs. 8-11
  10. BURKHOLDER, GROUT and PALISA, A History of Western Music, 10th ed., chs. 1-6

Group VIThe Italian Renaissance

  1. DURANT, W., The Renaissance
  2. CELLINI, B., Autobiography
  3. VASARI, G., Lives of the Painters and Sculptors. 4v. Esp. Giotto, Brunelleschi, Botticelli, Fra Angelico, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo
  4. HOFFDING, H., History of Modern Philosophy. 2v. Sections on Bruno and Machiavelli
  5. MACHIAVELLI, N., The Prince
  6. BURKHOLDER, GROUT and PALISA, A History of Western Music, 10th ed., chs. 7-9
  7. GOMBRICH, E. H., The Story of Art. 16th ed., chs. 15-16

Group VIIEurope in the Sixteenth Century

  1. DURANT, W., The Reformation
  2. MACCULLOCH, D., The Reformation: A Historyadded
  3. NELSON, B., The Cambridge Introduction to French Literature; sections on the sixteenth century
  4. RABELAIS, Gargantua and Pantagruel
  5. MONTAIGNE, Essays. 3v. Esp. Of Coaches, Of the Incommodity of Greatness, Of Vanity, and Of Experience
  6. CERVANTES, Don Quixote
  7. SHAKESPEARE, Plays. Esp. Hamlet, Lear, Macbeth, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Henry IV, Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, Midsummer Night's Dream, Timon of Athens, and The Tempest
  8. TAINE, bk. II, chs. 1-4
  9. WILL and ARIEL DURANT, The Age of Reason Beginsadded
  10. BURKHOLDER, GROUT and PALISA, A History of Western Music, 10th ed., chs. 10-12
  11. GOMBRICH, E. H., The Story of Art. 16th ed., chs. 17-18

Group VIIIEurope in the Seventeenth Century

  1. WILL and ARIEL DURANT, The Age of Louis XIVadded
  2. NELSON, B., The Cambridge Introduction to French Literature; sections on the seventeenth century
  3. LA ROCHEFOUCAULD, Reflections
  4. MOLIERE, Plays. Esp. Tartuffe, The Miser, The Misanthrope, The Bourgeois Gentleman, The Feast of the Statue (Don Juan)
  5. BACON, F., Essays. All
  6. MILTON, J., Lycidas, L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, Sonnets, Areopagitica, and Paradise Lost
  7. BAUER, S., The Story of Science; chs. 8-12
  8. COPLESTON, F. C., A History of Philosophy. Sections on Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Spinoza, and Leibnitz
  9. HOBBES, Leviathan
  10. SPINOZA, Ethics and On the Improvement of Understanding
  11. GOMBRICH, E. H., The Story of Art. 16th ed., chs. 19-20
  12. BURKHOLDER, GROUT and PALISA, A History of Western Music, 10th ed., chs. 13-17

Group IXEurope in the Eighteenth Century

  1. WILL and ARIEL DURANT, The Age of Voltaireadded
  2. NELSON, B., The Cambridge Introduction to French Literature; sections on the eighteenth century
  3. SAINTE-BEUVE, Portraits of the 18th Century
  4. VOLTAIRE, Works. 1-vol. ed. Esp. Candide, Zadig, and essays on Toleration and History
  5. ROUSSEAU, J. J., Confessions
  6. WILL and ARIEL DURANT, Rousseau and Revolutionadded
  7. TAINE, H., Origins of Contemporary France. 6v. Vols. I-IV
  8. CARLYLE, The French Revolution. 2v.
  9. TAINE, H., History of English Literature, bk. III, chs. 4-7
  10. BOSWELL, Life of Samuel Johnson. 2v.
  11. FIELDING, H., Tom Jones
  12. STERNE, L., Tristram Shandy
  13. SWIFT, J., Gulliver's Travels
  14. HUME, D., Treatise on Human Nature. 2v. Esp. bks. II and III
  15. WOLLSTONECRAFT, MARY, Vindication of the Rights of Woman
  16. SMITH, ADAM, The Wealth of Nations. 2v. Selections
  17. BAUER, S., The Story of Science; chs. 13-14
  18. COPLESTON, F. C., A History of Philosophy. Sections on the eighteenth century
  19. GOMBRICH, E. H., The Story of Art. 16th ed., chs. 21-23
  20. BURKHOLDER, GROUT and PALISA, A History of Western Music, 10th ed., chs. 18-23

Group XEurope in the Nineteenth Century

  1. WILL and ARIEL DURANT, The Age of Napoleonadded
  2. MARR, A., chs. 7
  3. TAINE, Origins of Contemporary France. Vol. V, The Modern Regime, pp. 1-90
  4. ROBERTS, A., Napoleon: A Lifeadded
  5. BRANDES, G., Main Currents of 19th Century Literature. 6v.
  6. GOETHE, Faust
  7. ECKERMANN, Conversations with Goethe
  8. HEINE, Poems
  9. TAINE, History of English Literature, bks. IV-V
  10. KEATS, Poems
  11. SHELLEY, Poems
  12. BYRON, Poems
  13. NELSON, B., The Cambridge Introduction to French Literature; sections on the nineteenth century
  14. BALZAC, Pere Goriot
  15. FLAUBERT, Works. I-vol. ed. Esp. Mme. Bovary and Salambo
  16. HUGO, Les Miserables
  17. FRANCE, ANATOLE, Penguin Isle
  18. TENNYSON, Poems
  19. DICKENS, Pickwick Papers
  20. THACKERAY, Vanity Fair
  21. TURGENEV, Fathers and Children
  22. DOSTOIEVSKI, The Brothers Karamazov
  23. TOLSTOI, War and Peace
  24. TOLSTOI, Anna Kareninaadded
  25. IBSEN, Peer Gynt
  26. BAUER, S., The Story of Science; chs. 15
  27. DARWIN, Descent of Man
  28. COPLESTON, F. C., A History of Philosophy. Sections on the nineteenth century
  29. BUCKLE, Introduction to the History of Civilization in England. Esp. part I, chs. 1-5, 15
  30. SCHOPENHAUER, Works., I-Vol. ed.
  31. NIETZSCHE, Thus Spake Zarathustra
  32. GOMBRICH, E. H., The Story of Art. 16th ed., chs. 24-26
  33. BURKHOLDER, GROUT and PALISA, A History of Western Music, 10th ed., chs. 14-33

Group XIAmerica

  1. BEARD, C. and M., The Rise of American Civilization. 2v.
  2. POE, Poems and Tales
  3. EMERSON, Essays
  4. THOREAU, Walden
  5. WHITMAN, Leaves of Grass
  6. LINCOLN, Letters and Speeches

Group XIIThe Twentieth Century

  1. MARR, A., chs. 8
  2. ROLLAND, R., Jean Christophe. 2v.
  3. ELLIS, H., Studies in the Psychology of Sex. Vols. I-VI
  4. ADAMS, H., The Education of Henry Adams
  5. BERGSON, Creative Evolution
  6. SPENGLER, O., Decline of the West. 2v.

“I discovered that one hundred and fifty books, carefully chosen, give you, if not a complete summary of human knowledge, at least everything that is useful for a man to know. I devoted three years of my life to reading and re-reading these hundred and fifty volumes, so that when I was arrested I knew them more or less by heart. In prison, with a slight effort of memory, I recalled them entirely. So I can recite to you Thucydides, Xenophon, Plutarch, Livy, Tacitus, Strada, Jornades, Dante, Montaigne, Shakespeare, Spinoza, Machiavelli and Bossuet.”

Abbé Faria, in The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.