Our Oriental Heritage: Exploring the Foundations of Civilization
March 15, 2025 at 11:00 am - 1:00 pm EDT
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In his debut salon, Vatsal Kaushik guides an exploration of the first volume in Will and Ariel Durant’s magnum opus, The Story of Civilization, and its relevance 90 years after publication.
In this salon, we will aim to discuss:
- The nature and elements of civilizations: Economic, political, morality, religion, science, arts
- Big picture history of ancient civilizations in Egypt, India, China, Japan, and the commonalities across them
- Will Durant’s “integral” writing style which makes history a literary experience instead of academic
- Comparing Our Oriental Heritage with other volumes in the series
- The reception of Our Oriental Heritage in 1935, and its legacy and relevance today
This salon is for anyone who is primarily interested in the viewing history from a philosophical and big picture angle, as this book does. This is the only book in the Story of Civilization series that focuses on non-European regions, so interest and insights into Eastern regions will make the conversation richer as well.
As someone who is reading this book for the first time, Vatsal’s aim is to discuss the themes of Our Oriental Heritage with like minded people and not preach a one way lesson.
If time allows, we will also read some of Will’s elegant prose from the book together!
If you don't have the time to read the book (understandably), I highly recommend reading The Lessons of History by the Durants. It's a short and dense compilation of lessons about humanity and civilizations from their decades long research on the Story of Civilization series.
