The Swerve: How the World Became Modern

Written by Stephen Greenblatt

Narrated by Edoardo Ballerini

Renowned historian Stephen Greenblatt's works shoot to the top of the New York Times best-seller list. With The Swerve, Greenblatt transports listeners to the dawn of the Renaissance and chronicles the life of an intrepid book lover who rescued the Roman philosophical text On the Nature of Things from certain oblivion. "More wonderfully illuminating Renaissance history from a master scholar and historian."-Kirkus Reviews, starred review

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 23, 2011
• ISBN: 9781461846901

Stephen Greenblatt

Stephen Greenblatt is an American literary historian and author. He has served as the John Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University since 2000. His books include Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare and The Swerve: How the World Became Modern.

[dchaikin_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

62. The Swerve : How the World Became Modern (Audio) by Stephen Greenblatt, read by Edoardo Ballerini (2011, 9 hrs 42 mins, 368 pages in Paperback, Listened October 17-27)The title of this book bothers me, as does the comment "A riveting tale of the great cultural "swerve" known as the Renaissance."The book is actually about the rediscovery in the 15th century of "On the Nature of Things" by the Roman Epicurean philosopher Lucretius. The "Swerve" refers to one translation of one of the fundamental aspects of the atom-based concepts promoted in the poem. Yes, Lucretius believed in what we today call atoms, or really, elements, or maybe really protons, neutrons and electrons. He also had the basic ideas of natural selection worked out, and what we would consider a more modern view of the cosmos. The "swerve" is a translation of his variety of what we might call atomic level chaos theory.The book is pretty good stuff. It's overly dramatic, but Greenblatt looks closely into the world of books and monasteries in the 15th century and how they got there, at the political world of the Popes, early humanists, and one momentarily out-of-work scholarly humanist, Poggio Bracciolini, who found a copy of Lucretius in a still unknown but likely isolated monastery.Then Greenblatt has to somehow deal with what I would consider several plot obstacles in that Poggio never really did anything with Lucretius, and that almost no authors could directly acknowledge influence of Lucretius since his ideas are so far outside the Christian, and especially Catholic, concepts of the times. So Greenblatt looks for anything he can find on atomic theory and claims it is either a reference to Lucretius or influenced by him. I was sometimes skeptical, and felt Greenblatt way overstated Lucretius's influence on the already underway Renaissance. But still this was enjoyable and worth pondering.Fun stuff and decent on audio.

[Edgar Haimerl · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A must read; the exiting history of the concept of happiness from Epicurean philosophy to the US constitution with all its enemies from the Vesuvius eruption through inquisition till today.

[baltazar gomez-mancilla · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent book, really enjoy the well documented narrative with the well known personal author touch.

[dandiercks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An intellectual detective story.

[tjwilson_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I didn’t think a book about the resurgence of classical literature could be so exciting as this book. I chugged through the last pages and was entirely engrossed by such an old yet thoroughly modern, even if only now, ideas.

[Thomas glenn · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fascinating book, full of history and ideas. I often had to go back and listen to parts again.
It opened up my curiosity about a time in history I knew little about. I have so much more to learn!

[bezoar44 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This fast-moving narrative history focuses on the rediscovery of Lucretius' De Rerum Natura, On the Nature of Things, in a monastery library in Germany in 1417. While acknowledging that this single work did not jump start the Renaissance, Greenblatt uses the story to tell a broader tale: how classical learning fell to pieces in Late Antiquity; how it was rediscovered in the Renaissance; and how it provided a vital alternative to centuries of dominance by Catholic and scholastic theology. If you've read about Late Antiquity or the Renaissance, this book won't offer much new depth, but will offer a lively tour of familiar ground. What Lucretius actually says in his book gets just one chapter - the best in the book, I thought, and a spur to read in greater depth about the Epicureans and the ancient and modern legacies.

[Dwight Campbell · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A window on the history of ideas and life before the renaissance.

[Luke Simenson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is a good read. Quite a bit of background info and context which proves as fascinating as the main subject. I believe the author fails to prove his basic thesis, however, and was left wanting a smoking gun, which never materialized.

[matthew.ducmanas · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An engaging book that covers a range of fascinating historical moments and milieus. The central character of Poggio Bracciolini and his discovery of an ancient text by Lucretius serves as a vehicle tracing the rise and fall of cultures and the slow progression to modernity. Very enjoyable read.

[aonaiza · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

amazing audiobook a must listem for all história and philosophy lovers

[jerry2book-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The search for the classics in the Middle Ages.

[a.godhelm · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A book with a very epic and grand scope in the title that might more accurately be described as a biography of Poggio Bracciolini, and how he found a copy of Lucretius' book On the Nature of Things that led to its copying and spread, as a cornerstone of renaissance rediscovery of ancient thought. Of course that more academic title of "Poggio Bracciolini: A forgotten hero of the renaissance" wouldn't have sold nearly as many copies.

On a scale of structures to individual actors, this book lies solidly toward the latter, but tries to present large structures as dominoes falling to the actions of this chance discovery by a little known figure. It's stuck somewhere between microhistory, which it probably should have been, and trying to create a grand narrative about the renaissance and the influence of ancient thought, and how radical and dangerous those ideas were seen to be. Of course the implicit argument that this was the big event that cinched "the swerve" as Greenblatt likes to call it, is not really supported by the book itself, rather just asserted. Would the book really not have been found elsewhere, by someone else, possibly at a later date? Was this book in particular really that essential compared to the rest of the ancient treasure trove? Is the rather tired trope of an evil Christian church opposed to 'progress' really not deserving of some nuance when every copyist who kept these books alive in monasteries were part of the same?

The book is better as the microhistory story it probably should have stayed, than the grand sweeping punches it takes at defining the renaissance.

[jennybeast · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Fascinating journey traces the rediscovery of Lucretius' poem, On the Nature of Things -- which is both extraordinarily ahead of its time and a really interesting philosophy of hedonism. I find the articulation of his ideas both terrifying and comforting, and the story of the Humanist search through monastic libraries in the 1500s is equally interesting.

[markm2315 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Kindle version of the book contains photo credits, but no photos. Otherwise, an interesting, and rambling, discussion of De rerum natura, its rediscovery and supposed consequences. The author is the scholar, not me, but it is hard to believe that the renaissance, the enlightenment, Thomas Jefferson and modern science are all so dependent on this poem.

[mykl8s · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is one I read some time ago and cannot recall enough about to review.

[treebeard_404 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Going into this book, I suspected that I would not find the author's conclusion (that Lucretius' poetic explication of Epicurean philosophy, On the Nature of Things was a keystone of modern materialistic thought) compelling. And that suspicion was correct. But the book was enjoyable, nonetheless.
[Audiobook Note: The reader, Edoardo Ballerini, was great. He deftly handled all the Latin, Italian, German and French text. (Although I do have one quibble. Like most English-speakers, he put the emphasis on Epicurus' name on the 3rd syllable, instead of the 2nd where it belongs.)]

[Yubiwa70 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I am and will be an Epicurean, ever since I became interested in the presocratics in high school, something that the boring Plato could never achieve.
Fascinating book, no more. (Translated from Spanish)

[usuallee · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Fairly interesting nonfiction. I had no idea how much of the writings of Ancient Greek and Roman authors has, barring new discoveries, been lost forever. I guess I just assumed it had all been preserved on stone tablets or something. I wouldn't really say it lived up to its subtitle "How the World Became Modern". It spent far more time chronicling some of the key figures involved and how people reacted to this poem of Lucretious hundreds of years ago than talking about how it pertains to modern life. The fact that it won the Pulitzer to me is a bit of a stretch, however it's a decent work of nonfiction.

[multiplexer-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a fantastic 2/3rds of a book and a flat 1/3rd of a book. If you quit at the 2/3rds mark, I'm fine with that because the last third falls flat.

Swerve is about the re-discovery of Lucretius's "On the Nature of Things," an Epicurian poem extolling an early Roman atheist worldview of a universe made of atoms descended directly from the Greek Epicurians. For the first third, Swerve dives into the literature movement of the Roman Empire, the nature and industry of hand-written books on scrolls, libraries, and a world of literacy in a time of hegemony. And then Rome fell apart bit by bit and the books were lost to mold, moisture, Christians with torches, and monks who didn't care to make copies. The early Christian Saints clutched their chests and fell on their fainting couches about how Roman Literature in its beautiful literate manicured Latin, so much better than the crude Greek or Hebrew of the Levant, destroyed their souls and should never be read -- wink wink -- really don't read it except you should. To no one's surprise, people took the Saints seriously and it went from oh no we're not reading that to NO WE REALLY AREN'T READING THAT and thus, books get lost and destroyed and neglected and used for kindling. Some of the books were copied and recopied in rotation in forgotten mountainous monasteries. On the Nature of Things was one of those.

The second third of the book is about the academics of early Renaissance Florence who fought precisely like academics do. Nothing is better than threats and slander and lies and assassination attempts over translations of Latin. Some of the books crept out, some of the books stayed in collections, but fundamentally these crazy academics established fonts and notation and procedure and pedantic lexicography and everything the modern world needs to analyze literature. These are good people, the crazy ones who go to the Alps to steal books from monasteries. It's like an Umberto Eco novel except it all really happened.

So thus the book about the atoms and the atheism is returned to circulation.

This is all well and good. But the last third of the book stretches to make Lucretius's poem important in the course of history. The arguments are tenuous at best. Galileo! Thomas Jefferson! Newton! I think there was a Kant reference stuffed in there. The argument isn't very good because it was an whole body of literature, not just one poem, entering the literary market once again (histories, plays, philosophy, huge books of maps) that helped kick things along. Sure a book talking about atoms had some impact but wow, it felt overblown. This is unlike Fourth Corner of the World where the return of Ptolemy's Geography had noticeable and traceable effect -- before Geography, no maps; after Geography, maps -- it's unclear what the return of Lucretius's poem actually had.

Again! Absolutely fantastic first two thirds of a book. Worth reading. Perfect in its awesomeness. Last third -- merely good and sometimes bordering on okay. Recommend for the first two thirds, which is more than I can say for 90% of the history books I've ever read.

[paul_s-289480 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Maybe the book is not true but it is beautiful.

[pharmacdon · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I was listening to the audio, and for some reason the audio gave out. I was about to discontinue listening to it anyway. Another review said it best:
"A dubious thesis propped up by selective evidence and punctuated by digressions that were often only tenuously connected to the book's argument. Greenblatt massively overstates Epicurean philosophy's significance in the ancient world and his bold claims for the influence of Lucretius' poem in the Renaissance are rarely supported by the evidence he presents to any sufficient degree. Worst of all is his bizarre caricatures of the Medieval period - he doesn't seem to know the Twelfth Century revival ever happened and universities get one passing mention, though the worst aspects of monasticism get repeated emphasis and flagellation gets pages of loving detail. And his claims Christianity somehow suppressed Lucretius' poem are undermined by his underplayed references to various medieval manuscripts of the poem (though these are often tucked away in footnotes). For an institution trying to "destroy" this poem, the Medieval church sure went about it in a strange way.
Greenblatt is an expert in literature rather than history, and it shows. The fact this book won a Pulitzer says something about a triumph of style and marketing over substance and basic fact checking. A book that actively distorts history is not a good history book."

[steve_walker-348810 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I was very disappointed with this book. I still fail to see why it received the pre-publication buzz that it did or, for that matter, why it picked up so many rewards. It is a very weak book and has the feeling of a writing project that was rushed. This is not Stephen Greenblatt's best work.

[datrappert · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As I was listening to this, I felt the title was sort of misleading for a long time, but eventually Greenblatt gets to the heart of the matter, the book itself - Lucretius's The Nature of Things (or The Nature of the Universe, or whatever your particular publisher has decided to call it.) This book is just as much, or more, a biography of Poggio Bracciolini, who re-disovered the book in a German monastery and was responsible for its subsequent influence on the development of Western thought. Or at least Western thought outside of the United States, where we seem to still, despite the recent election, be living in some sort of dark age of religious fundamentalism where much of the population would be happy to see anyone who doesn't share their views burned at the stake. All of Greenblatt's context turns out to be interesting and mostly necessary for understanding Lucretius's book and the reaction to it over the centuries. Two things that emerge from the story: 1) Christianity was really a tragedy for Western Civilization; and 2) Thomas More was no saint. The ideas in The Nature of Things were drawn from the teachings of Epicurus and were centuries ahead of their time. They threatened the power of the church, but the ideas were too powerful to stamp out, and with the invention of the printing press, suppression became pretty much impossible. Greenblatt (as always, I guess) has very strong opinions that come though in his writing. If you agree with them, as I do, you'll love it. If you are close-minded or religious, you may not.

The audiobook version was very well done and was not a barrier in appreciating the subject matter. (I have always found audiobooks to be great for stories that don't require stopping to think about things or look things up or backtrack a few pages to make sure you understood. But Greenblatt's writing is quite clear and logically organized, so confusion is never a problem.)

[geza.tatrallyay · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fascinating true story of the rediscovery of Lucretius's De Rerum Naturae, perhaps the most unknown and most influential poem / treatise that helped launch the Renaissance.

[susangeiss · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Well, I am not a nonfiction lover, but I read the first 100 pages. This reads well and is full of interesting information...who knew!

[tuckerresearch · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Greenblatt explores ancient Roman philosophy, the late Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and books through the lens of Lucretius's On the Nature of Things as rediscovered by humanist Poggio Braccilioni. A lot of interesting information, sidelights, highlights, reverberations, politics, book history, church history, philosophy, and the like. It is a good book for a general scholarly reader wishing to dip their toes in a whole bunch of subjects. It's informative, interesting, and well written. Some nice images. Extensive endnotes, in that dumb modern publishing style with page number snippet quotes and then info at the back. Greenblatt, a scholar, has expansive content notes in addition to just bibliographical documentation. The notes are well worth reading. Good bibliography. Index.

[El lector utópico · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It is a critique. A profound novel-like essay on the foundations that have constituted modern thought, a detailed analysis of the undeniable influence of classical culture in that cultural shift that the Renaissance represented for us, the contribution of humanist thought in that change, the unknown figure to me of the book hunter who came to rescue books of incalculable value from the dark depths of monastic libraries, submerged in a disconsolate oblivion, like the extensive and didactic poem by Lucretius, De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things), redeemed from voluntary neglect in a lost monastery by the humanist Poggio Bracciolini, unleashing a dormant intellectual speculation on atomism and Epicureanism and their invitations to enjoy worldly pleasures in contrast to the suffering and dismay offered by dogmatic Christianity.
The book is an inexhaustible source of knowledge, a constant invitation to delve into branches in which its arguments diversify. Its reading is arid due to the infinite annotations, comments, and clarifications in footnotes, but in its defense, it is fair to clarify that it has been a long time since I drank from such a satisfying fountain of knowledge.
One must read it to better understand the foundations of our culture, but it must be done with undeniable predisposition. (Translated from Spanish)

[CARMEN3004 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A magnificent book that came into my hands by chance and sparked a growing interest in me. The exposition of the Greek and Roman era is perfect. The narration of the medieval period and the Renaissance is perfect. A sublime stroll through history and an invitation to many reflections on the Catholic religion and the Church as it is known in the Western world. This will not be the only book I read by Stephen Greenblatt. (Translated from Spanish)

[Guayo Guara · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It is a book more about the discoverer and the atmosphere that prevailed at the time than about Lucretius' poem "De rerum natura." If the content is about someone searching for forbidden and forgotten books in lost libraries around the world, I’m already hooked. However, it left me wanting more. But I recommend it for its light reading and for allowing me to enjoy that era of humanists who survived amidst religious intolerance and revived the classical world. (Translated from Spanish)