Stephen Greenblatt. Harvard humanities professor Greenblatt shows how the discovery of the last existing manuscript of Lucretius's "On the Nature of Things"—a radical book proclaiming that the world manages without gods and is made of small particles in constant motion—led to the Renaissance. The swerve? Lucretius allowed for the existence of free will in his atom-bound universe by theorizing that those little particles swerve randomly. More wonderfully illuminating Renaissance history from a master scholar and historian.--Library Journal/Kirkus (Check Catalog)
Friday, January 13, 2012
The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
Stephen Greenblatt. Harvard humanities professor Greenblatt shows how the discovery of the last existing manuscript of Lucretius's "On the Nature of Things"—a radical book proclaiming that the world manages without gods and is made of small particles in constant motion—led to the Renaissance. The swerve? Lucretius allowed for the existence of free will in his atom-bound universe by theorizing that those little particles swerve randomly. More wonderfully illuminating Renaissance history from a master scholar and historian.--Library Journal/Kirkus (Check Catalog)
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The Swerve traces the discovery of Lucretius's "On Nature" backward and forward (all the way to Thomas Jefferson) through the lives and work of the discoverer and his contemporaries. Along the way, it offers a rich exploration of the early Renaissance, Catholic Church politics, reaching back as well to Roman life and thought and its Hellenic influences. Very engagingly written (end-noted for those who like that), with lots of intimate details to spice up the theological and philosophical explication.
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