Will Durant’s 100 Best Books for an Education - My Adapted Version

In the philosopher and historian Will Durant’s book The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time, he presented his list of one hundred books for an education, spanning a wide range of subjects. Most of the list is still as relevant today as when Durant published it, but there are some more up-to-date books that reflect the scientific advancements that have been made in recent years. Also, I have added a couple of additional books that are my personal favourites.

The purpose of this list is to set a preliminary reading list to build a sturdy foundation in and deep understanding of history, philosophy, literature, science, art, and culture.

Time required for reading: 4-6 years at 7 hours per week

Bookshelf or relevant image

Group I. Introductory Texts

  1. BRYSON, B., A Short History of Nearly Everything
  2. MARIEB and KELLER, Essentials of Human Anatomy & Physiology
  3. ATTIA, P., Outlive
  4. WALKER, M., Why We Sleep
  5. JAMES, W., The Principles of Psychology
  1. CIALDINI, R., Influence
  2. KAUFMAN, P., Poor Charlie’s Almanack
  3. SUMNER, W. G., Folkways
  4. FRAZER, SIR JAS., The Golden Bough
  5. GIRARD, R., Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World

Group II. Asia and Africa

  1. MARR, A., A History of the World; chs. 1-2.
  2. DURANT, W., Our Oriental Heritage
  3. READER, J., Africa: A Biography of the Continent
  1. VAN NORDEN and IVANHOE, Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy
  2. The Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Ruth, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Amos, Micah, the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, and Epistles of St. Paul
  3. GOMBRICH, E. H., The Story of Art. 16th ed., chs. 1-2, 7.

Group III. Greece

  1. DURANT, W., The Life of Greece
  2. HERODOTUS, Histories
  3. THUCYDIDES, History of the Peloponnesian War
  4. PLUTARCH, Parallel Lives. Loeb classical library ed. (esp. Lycurgus, Solon, Themistocles, Aristides, Pericles, Alcibiades, Demosthenes, Alexander)
  5. MURRAY, G., Greek Literature
  6. HOMER, Iliad
  7. HOMER, Odyssey
  8. AESCHYLUS, Prometheus Bound
  1. SOPHOCLES, Oedipus Tyrannus and Antigone
  2. EURIPIDES, all plays
  3. DIOGENES LAERTIUS, Lives of the Philosophers
  4. PLATO, Dialogues. esp. The Apology of Socrates, Phaedo and The Republic (sections 327-32, 336-77, 384-85, 392-426, 433-35, 481-83, 512-20, 572-95)
  5. ARISTOTLE, Nicomachean Ethics
  6. ARISTOTLE, Politics
  7. BAUER, S., The Story of Science; chs. 1-4
  8. GOMBRICH, E. H., The Story of Art. 16th ed., chs. 3-4

Group IV. Rome

  1. DURANT, W., Caesar and Christ
  2. MARR, A., chs. 3
  3. PLUTARCH, Parallel Lives. Loeb classical library ed. (esp. Cato Censor, Tiberius and Caius Gracchus, Marius, Sylla, Pompey, Cicero, Caesar, Brutus, Antony)
  4. LUCRETIUS, On the Nature of Things
  5. VIRGIL, Aeneid
  1. MARCUS AURELIUS, Meditations
  2. BAUER, S., The Story of Science; chs. 5-6
  3. GOMBRICH, E. H., The Story of Art. 16th ed., chs. 5-6
  4. GIBBON, E., Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Penguin Classics ed.

Group V. The Age of Christianity

  1. DURANT, W., The Age of Faith
  2. MARR, A., chs. 4
  3. OMAR KHAYYAM, Rubaiyat
  4. ABELARD and HELOISE, The Letters of Abelard and Heloise
  5. DANTE, Divine Comedy
  1. TAINE, H., History of English Literature, bk. 1
  2. CHAUCER, G., Canterbury Tales
  3. ADAMS, H., Mont St. Michel and Chartres
  4. GOMBRICH, E. H., The Story of Art. 16th ed., chs. 8-11
  5. BURKHOLDER, GROUT and PALISA, A History of Western Music, 10th ed., chs. 1-6

Group VI. The Italian Renaissance

  1. DURANT, W., The Renaissance
  2. CELLINI, B., Autobiography
  3. VASARI, G., Lives of the Painters and Sculptors. 4v. Esp. Giotto, Brunelleschi, Botticelli, Fra Angelico, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo
  4. HOFFDING, H., History of Modern Philosophy. 2v. Sections on Bruno and Machiavelli
  1. MACHIAVELLI, N., The Prince
  2. BURKHOLDER, GROUT and PALISA, A History of Western Music, 10th ed., chs. 7-9
  3. GOMBRICH, E. H., The Story of Art. 16th ed., chs. 15-16

Group VII. Europe in the Seventeenth Century

  1. DURANT, W., The Reformation
  2. MACCULLOCH, D., The Reformation: A History
  3. NELSON, B., The Cambridge Introduction to French Literature; sections on the sixteenth century
  4. RABELAIS, Gargantua and Pantagruel
  5. MONTAIGNE, Essays. 3v. Esp. Of Coaches, Of the Incommodity of Greatness, Of Vanity, and Of Experience
  6. CERVANTES, Don Quixote
  1. SHAKESPEARE, Plays. Esp. Hamlet, Lear, Macbeth, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Henry IV, Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, Midsummer Night's Dream, Timon of Athens, and The Tempest
  2. TAINE, bk. II, chs. 1-4
  3. WILL and ARIEL DURANT, The Age of Reason Begins
  4. BURKHOLDER, GROUT and PALISA, A History of Western Music, 10th ed., chs. 10-12
  5. GOMBRICH, E. H., The Story of Art. 16th ed., chs. 17-18

Group VIII. Europe in the Seventeenth Century

  1. WILL and ARIEL DURANT, The Age of Louis XIV
  2. NELSON, B., The Cambridge Introduction to French Literature; sections on the seventeenth century
  3. LA ROCHEFOUCAULD, Reflections
  4. MOLIERE, Plays. Esp. Tartuffe, The Miser, The Misanthrope, The Bourgeois Gentleman, The Feast of the Statue (Don Juan)
  5. BACON, F., Essays. All
  6. MILTON, J., Lycidas, L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, Sonnets, Areopagitica, and Paradise Lost
  1. BAUER, S., The Story of Science; chs. 8-12
  2. COPLESTON, F. C., A History of Philosophy. Sections on Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Spinoza, and Leibnitz
  3. HOBBES, Leviathan
  4. SPINOZA, Ethics and On the Improvement of Understanding
  5. GOMBRICH, E. H., The Story of Art. 16th ed., chs. 19-20
  6. BURKHOLDER, GROUT and PALISA, A History of Western Music, 10th ed., chs. 13-17

Group IX. Europe in the Eighteenth Century

  1. WILL and ARIEL DURANT, The Age of Voltaire
  2. NELSON, B., The Cambridge Introduction to French Literature; sections on the eighteenth century
  3. SAINTE-BEUVE, Portraits of the 18th Century
  4. VOLTAIRE, Works. 1-vol. ed. Esp. Candide, Zadig, and essays on Toleration and History
  5. ROUSSEAU, J. J., Confessions
  6. WILL and ARIEL DURANT, Rousseau and Revolution
  7. TAINE, H., Origins of Contemporary France. 6v. Vols. I-IV
  8. CARLYLE, The French Revolution. 2v.
  9. TAINE, H., History of English Literature, bk. III, chs. 4-7
  10. BOSWELL, Life of Samuel Johnson. 2v.
  1. FIELDING, H., Tom Jones
  2. STERNE, L., Tristram Shandy
  3. SWIFT, J., Gulliver's Travels
  4. HUME, D., Treatise on Human Nature. 2v. Esp. bks. II and III
  5. WOLLSTONECRAFT, MARY, Vindication of the Rights of Woman
  6. SMITH, ADAM, The Wealth of Nations. 2v. Selections
  7. BAUER, S., The Story of Science; chs. 13-14
  8. COPLESTON, F. C., A History of Philosophy. Sections on the eighteenth century
  9. GOMBRICH, E. H., The Story of Art. 16th ed., chs. 21-23
  10. BURKHOLDER, GROUT and PALISA, A History of Western Music, 10th ed., chs. 18-23

Group X. Europe in the Nineteenth Century

  1. WILL and ARIEL DURANT, The Age of Napoleon
  2. MARR, A., chs. 7
  3. TAINE, Origins of Contemporary France. Vol. V, The Modern Regime, pp. 1-90
  4. ROBERTS, A., Napoleon: A Life
  5. BRANDES, G., Main Currents of 19th Century Literature. 6v.
  6. GOETHE, Faust
  7. ECKERMANN, Conversations with Goethe
  8. HEINE, Poems
  9. TAINE, History of English Literature, bks. IV-V
  10. KEATS, Poems
  11. SHELLEY, Poems
  12. BYRON, Poems
  13. NELSON, B., The Cambridge Introduction to French Literature; sections on the nineteenth century
  14. BALZAC, Pere Goriot
  15. FLAUBERT, Works. I-vol. ed. Esp. Mme. Bovary and Salambo
  16. HUGO, Les Miserables
  17. FRANCE, ANATOLE, Penguin Isle
  1. TENNYSON, Poems
  2. DICKENS, Pickwick Papers
  3. THACKERAY, Vanity Fair
  4. TURGENEV, Fathers and Children
  5. DOSTOIEVSKI, The Brothers Karamazov
  6. TOLSTOI, War and Peace
  7. TOLSTOI, Anna Karenina
  8. IBSEN, Peer Gynt
  9. BAUER, S., The Story of Science; chs. 15
  10. DARWIN, Descent of Man
  11. COPLESTON, F. C., A History of Philosophy. Sections on the nineteenth century
  12. BUCKLE, Introduction to the History of Civilization in England. Esp. part I, chs. 1-5, 15
  13. SCHOPENHAUER, Works., I-Vol. ed.
  14. NIETZSCHE, Thus Spake Zarathustra
  15. GOMBRICH, E. H., The Story of Art. 16th ed., chs. 24-26
  16. BURKHOLDER, GROUT and PALISA, A History of Western Music, 10th ed., chs. 14-33

Group XI. America

  1. BEARD, C. and M., The Rise of American Civilization. 2v.
  2. POE, Poems and Tales
  3. EMERSON, Essays
  1. THOREAU, Walden
  2. WHITMAN, Leaves of Grass
  3. LINCOLN, Letters and Speeches

Group XII. The Twentieth Century

  1. MARR, A., chs. 8
  2. ROLLAND, R., Jean Christophe. 2v.
  3. ELLIS, H., Studies in the Psychology of Sex. Vols. I-VI
  1. ADAMS, H., The Education of Henry Adams
  2. BERGSON, Creative Evolution
  3. SPENGLER, O., Decline of the West. 2v.

“I discovered that one hundred and fifty books, carefully chosen, give you, if not a complete summary of human knowledge, at least everything that is useful for a man to know. I devoted three years of my life to reading and re-reading these hundred and fifty volumes, so that when I was arrested I knew them more or less by heart. In prison, with a slight effort of memory, I recalled them entirely. So I can recite to you Thucydides, Xenophon, Plutarch, Livy, Tacitus, Strada, Jornades, Dante, Montaigne, Shakespeare, Spinoza, Machiavelli and Bossuet;”

- Faria, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas