Our Oriental Heritage by Will DurantMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Several millennia of Middle Eastern history as well as all Indian, Chinese, and Japanese history up to the early 1930s in less than 1000 pages of text might sound impossible, but it was accomplished. Our Oriental Heritage is the first volume of Will Durant’s The Story of Civilization series that focused on European (Western) history went from an expected five-volume series to 11.
The most glaring issue with Durant’s book is the Introduction in which he described the “building blocks” of culture and how humanity progressed to begin “civilization” by noting examples of “primitive” and “savage” peoples that Europeans had documented in the 19th Century of what had preceded the various Middle Eastern and Asian cultures. Though not surprised by the language Durant used in this section given the era he wrote this volume, it was still cringe-worthy reading that was big negative even though it covered only the first 110 pages of text. Durant’s survey of Egyptian and Middle Eastern history up to the time of Alexander the Great as well of all Indian, Chinese, and Japanese history up to the time of the 1930s is as best that could be hopeful in such a limited number of pages with the aim to show how all those “civilizations” contributed to changes in Western (European) history.
Overall, Our Oriental Heritage is a nice survey of millennia of history that Will Durant gives the reader before launching his series into European history in the next volume.
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