![]() The rediscovery of Lucretius' wonderful Epicurean poem in the fifteenth century was not - to quote the subtitle - "how the world became modern". ![]() The problem with the Swerve, of course, is that it doesn't remotely make its case. And yet, somewhat ironically considering its subject matter, The Swerve itself is a symptom of the decline in our own culture and the fact that so many learned people could fall for such a shallow book is actually pretty depressing. The Swerve is the story of the fifteenth century rediscovery of Lucretius' De Rerum Natura and how knowledge of Lucretius' atomic theory, disbelief in the gods, etc brought the world out of a long period of intellectual decline and "laid the groundwork for the modern world." The Swerve begins with four pages of quotes of positive reviews from all the most important American newspapers and reviewers and on the cover we are told that the book won the 2011 National Book Award AND the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for non fiction. ![]()
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