विलियम जेम्स ड्यूरेंट एक विपुल अमेरिकी लेखक, इतिहासकार और दार्शनिक थे। वह अपनी पत्नी एरियल के सहयोग से लिखी गई 11-खंड द स्टोरी ऑफ सिविलाइजेशन के लिए सबसे ज्यादा जाने जाते हैं और 1935 और 1975 के बीच प्रकाशित हुए। उन्हें पहले 1926 में लिखी गई उनकी पुस्तक, द स्टोरी ऑफ फिलॉसफी के लिए जाना जाता था, जिसे "ए" माना जाता था। अभूतपूर्व कार्य जिसने दर्शन को लोकप्रिय बनाने में मदद की।"
उन्हें 1967 में साहित्य के लिए पुलित्जर पुरस्कार और 1977 में प्रेसिडेंशियल मेडल ऑफ फ्रीडम से सम्मानित किया गया।
The lessons of history पीडीएफ विल दुरंत
In this illuminating and thoughtful book, Will and Ariel Durant have succeeded in distilling for the reader the accumulated store of knowledge and experience from their four decades of work on the ten monumental volumes of "The Story of Civilization." The result is a survey of human history, full of dazzling insights into the nature of human experience, the evolution of civilization, the culture of man. With the completion of their life's work they look back and ask what history has to say about the nature, the conduct and the prospects of man, seeking in the great lives, the great ideas, the great events of the past for the meaning of man's long journey through war, conquest and creation - and for the great themes that can help us to understand our own era.
To the Durants, history is "not merely a warning reminder of man's follies and crimes, but also an encouraging remembrance of generative souls ... a spacious country of the mind wherein a thousand saints, statesman, inventors, scientists, poets, artists, musicians, lovers, and philosophers still live and speak, teach and carve and sing..."
Designed to accompany the ten-volume set of "The Story of Civilization, The Lessons of History" is, in its own right, a profound and original work of history and philosophy.