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lajacquerie 's review for:
The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
by Stephen Greenblatt
The Swerve tracks the disappearance and (much much later) reappearance of the idea of atomism, and the men who helped propagate it. This idea—in which all humans, animals, organic and inorganic matter are made of the same constituent parts, forever recombining in various ways. This was a radical idea in that it meant that humans were not special, and that there wasn't necessarily a life after death. Instead, your cells just recombine in new ways.
This idea started with Epicurus and was most lastingly transcribed/preserved by the poet Lucretius in a work of both great intellect and artistry. It (and the ideas) flourished in the last decades of BC, until it did not. These ideas and works disappeared during the Dark Ages and remained buried for a long while (you can understand why the Holy Roman Empire/papacy wouldn't be fans). It wasn't until a copy was found forgotten in a monastery in the 1400s that the ideas slowly, slowly started trickling back in... this is the story of that idea, and how it was rediscovered.
Aside: Epicurus and his philosophies are NOT what our common understanding holds them to be. Banter and slander were wicked in those days; and unfortunately it is the magnified snide comments about him (and a few of the characters you'll find in here) that have persisted and now sit in our collective knowledge as fact.
This idea started with Epicurus and was most lastingly transcribed/preserved by the poet Lucretius in a work of both great intellect and artistry. It (and the ideas) flourished in the last decades of BC, until it did not. These ideas and works disappeared during the Dark Ages and remained buried for a long while (you can understand why the Holy Roman Empire/papacy wouldn't be fans). It wasn't until a copy was found forgotten in a monastery in the 1400s that the ideas slowly, slowly started trickling back in... this is the story of that idea, and how it was rediscovered.
Aside: Epicurus and his philosophies are NOT what our common understanding holds them to be. Banter and slander were wicked in those days; and unfortunately it is the magnified snide comments about him (and a few of the characters you'll find in here) that have persisted and now sit in our collective knowledge as fact.