“The
Durants provide a period panorama par excellence, a compound of history
and biography in which indeed man makes history, not history the man.
Voltaire becomes the pivot for the age, with his deification of reason
and anti-clerical stance…They are at their
enthusiastic best when filling out the portraits of their immense cast,
but their compass, their comprehension of the political, social,
economic, scientific, philosophic, artistic realities, set in the
perspective of their theme, offer a unified over-view of life in France,
England, Middle Europe…A
popular cultural spectacular.”