|
Books > History > World history
|
Buy Now
The Swerve - How the World Became Modern (Paperback)
Loot Price: R419
Discovery Miles 4 190
You Save: R83
(17%)
|
|
|
The Swerve - How the World Became Modern (Paperback)
 (sign in to rate)
List price R502
Loot Price R419
Discovery Miles 4 190
You Save R83 (17%)
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
|
In the winter of 1417, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his
late thirties plucked a very old manuscript off a dusty shelf in a
remote monastery, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and
ordered that it be copied. He was Poggio Bracciolini, the greatest
book hunter of the Renaissance. His discovery, Lucretius' ancient
poem On the Nature of Things, had been almost entirely lost to
history for more than a thousand years. It was a beautiful poem of
the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functions without the
aid of gods, that religious fear is damaging to human life, that
pleasure and virtue are not opposites but intertwined, and that
matter is made up of very small material particles in eternal
motion, randomly colliding and swerving in new directions. Its
return to circulation changed the course of history. The poem's
vision would shape the thought of Galileo and Freud, Darwin and
Einstein, and-in the hands of Thomas Jefferson-leave its trace on
the Declaration of Independence. From the gardens of the ancient
philosophers to the dark chambers of monastic scriptoria during the
Middle Ages to the cynical, competitive court of a corrupt and
dangerous pope, Greenblatt brings Poggio's search and discovery to
life in a way that deepens our understanding of the world we live
in now. "An intellectually invigorating, nonfiction version of a
Dan Brown-like mystery-in-the-archives thriller." -Boston Globe
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
|
You might also like..
|
Email address subscribed successfully.
A activation email has been sent to you.
Please click the link in that email to activate your subscription.
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
(1)
