The near century between the death of John Calvin and the Council to Trent to the end of the Thirty Years War saw first religious intolerance and religious wars range across the continent until in the end politics trumped everything like it always does. The Age of Reason Begins is the seventh volume of The Story of Civilization series by Will & Ariel Durant as Protestants fight one another and both fight Catholics before eventually politics overrules everything and people begin to ignore religion.

This volume continues a trend of transitions that defined Early Modern Era highlighting a single nation, then the continent, and finally beginning of the return of “reason” over “religion”. The Durants began the rise of Great Britain from the reign of Elizabeth I to the death of Charles I as it transitioned from warring individual nations to nations united political though with significant differences that still needed to be worked out. Next, they followed the transition across the continent of various religious wars that saw either the rise or follow of great powers from prominence that ultimately went from how God was worshiped but what was politically more important. Then they completed the volume with the rise of science and slow return of now religious inspired philosophy. Even though the Durants focused on philosophy and scientific advances in the last 100 pages of the book, they did not neglect cultural developments in literature to theater to music to the development of scientific thought, it was in this area that one could tell Will Durant was enjoying writing. After three volumes in which Will Durant had to focus on religion more than he liked this volume a reader of the series could tell change in Will’s writing that could by a result of Ariel or Will love of philosophy and science.

The Age of Reason Begins is a transitional volume of Will Durant’s The Story of Civilization not only in the transition into the Early Modern Era but also the involvement of his wife Ariel as a cowriter. ( )

Mr. Durant covers the period between the reign of Elizabeth I of England and the beginning of Louis XIV's reign in France. The Stuarts, the Thirty Years War, and Richelieu all figure conspicuously herein. Durant manages to convey vast knowledge pleasantly, reasonably accurately, and completely. ( )

The surveys of art, philosophy and science by region are as interesting as the personalities portrayed. Viewing the art, seeing the plays, reading the books and visiting the locations he discusses would be fascinating. It must be what Art History is like. ( )

I admit, the volume reviewed here has less interest for me than the volumes on either side, but by now, the Durants have their system of presenting the literary and philosophical history of Western European history, operating pretty well. We see a fuller presentation of Francis Bacon than usual, and justly so, as his contribution to the young disciplines of systematic philosophy, experimental science, and history are usually passed over. 1558 to 1648 sees the full blossoming of the Elizabethans, and culminates in the vicious burndown of central Europe called the Thirty Years War. The English speaking world usually ignores the amount of damage done there, except as an offshoot of the English Civil War., and to some degree this volume does follow that pattern, I note that this volume is one of the slimmest in the series. As usual, the epigram count is high, but the portrait gallery is weaker perhaps due to the material destruction on the continent. It is a competent, but not sparkling chapter in the larger work. ( )

This is one of the most interesting books of history I've read. It covers a period between 1558 and 1648, a time of real and important change in how people saw the world. Rather than simply providing a detailed and dry account of wars and kings, it focuses on the evolution of the ideas and beliefs, specifically chronicling the progress of human thought and humanity's understanding of nature. To a modern reader, much of the sixteenth and seventeenth century bickering about theological minutia may seem ridiculous to us, but to them, those alive at the time, these things were important. This books helps one understand why. There are, of course, a lot of dates and names of people who are only remembered because of an accident of birth or because of the damage they caused. This is history, after all. But it also relates the story of philosophers and fledgling scientists who made a positive and lasting difference. These are the people who helped drag civilization out of the Dark Ages to make the modern world modern. ( )