It's a massive book. Honestly, holding Our Oriental Heritage by Will Durant feels less like picking up a history text and more like lifting a cinderblock. Published in 1935 as the opening salvo of his eleven-volume The Story of Civilization, it attempts something that most modern historians are too scared to try: telling the entire story of "The East" in a single, coherent narrative.
He spent decades on this.
You’ve probably seen these thick, burgundy-bound volumes gathering dust in used bookstores or your grandfather’s study. People often ignore them because they look like homework. That’s a mistake. Durant wasn't a dry academic writing for a peer-reviewed journal that three people would read; he was a philosopher trying to make sense of how humans stayed alive and stayed creative across thousands of years.
The Audacity of the "Oriental" Scope
When Will Durant wrote Our Oriental Heritage, the word "Oriental" didn't carry the specific baggage it does today. For him, it was a vast, sprawling geography that started in the Near East—Sumeria, Egypt, Babylonia—and stretched all the way to the edges of Japan. He wanted to prove a point. He wanted to show that Western civilization didn't just pop out of the ground in Greece. It was a derivative.
It was a debt.
The book is structured into sections that feel like distinct lives. He starts with the "Establishment of Civilization," where he basically defines what it means to be civilized. To Durant, it’s not just about having a king or a spear. It’s about labor, law, and the transmission of mental and moral heritage. If you can’t pass down what you learned to your kids, you’re just surviving. You aren’t building a civilization.
He dives deep into the Sumerians. Most people skip the Sumerians. Big mistake. Durant paints them as the gritty innovators of the mud. They gave us the wheel, sure, but they also gave us the nightmare of bureaucracy and the beauty of written law. He moves through Egypt with a sort of poetic reverence, then shifts into the "Prohibitive" morality of the Jews, the sweeping empires of the Persians, and eventually, the massive cultural anchors of India and China.
Why Durant Hits Different
Modern history books are often specialized. You get a book on the socioeconomic impact of salt in the Ming Dynasty. That's fine. It's useful. But it doesn't give you the "pulse" of a people.
Durant writes with a specific kind of flair.
"Civilization is a precarious thing, a delicate fruit of a mature age; it is a labor of many generations, and a moment’s neglect may ruin it."
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He’s obsessed with the idea that we are always five minutes away from barbarism. This gives the book a tension that makes it readable even when he’s describing ancient tax codes. He’s looking for the soul of the people. When he talks about India, he isn't just listing dates of invasions. He’s wrestling with the Vedas and the Upanishads. He’s trying to explain why a subcontinent would produce both the most intricate metaphysics on earth and some of its most crushing poverty.
He’s judgmental, too. You have to be ready for that. Durant wasn't trying to be "neutral" in the way we think of it now. He had opinions. He thought some cultures were more successful at promoting human happiness than others. He admired the Chinese for their stability and their focus on the family unit, famously noting that "the Chinese have the most durable civilization in history."
He wasn't wrong.
The "Our Oriental Heritage" Controversy and Context
Look, we have to talk about the 1930s. Writing a book about the "East" in 1935 means you’re going to run into some outdated perspectives. Durant was a product of his time. He occasionally uses generalizations about "the Asian mind" or "racial character" that would make a modern sociology professor sweat.
But here is the thing: he was remarkably progressive for his era.
While most of his contemporaries were focused purely on "Great Men" of European history, Durant was screaming from the rooftops that the West owed everything to the East. He argued that the foundations of science, mathematics, and even the alphabet were gifts from the very people Europe was colonizing at the time. He was a bridge-builder. He went on massive tours, actually visiting the places he wrote about, which was a rarity for historians of that period. He spent months in India during the height of the independence movement, even writing a separate, fiery pamphlet called The Case for India that criticized British imperialism so harshly it was banned in several places.
He had skin in the game.
The Structure of the Work
The book is divided into roughly four major "Books" within the volume:
- The Near East: Sumeria, Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, Judea, and Persia.
- India and Its Neighbors: From the Vedas to the Taj Mahal.
- The Far East: China, including its philosophy, poetry, and the rise of the Mandarins.
- Japan: Its origins, the Samurai, and its rapid transformation.
He doesn't just do politics. He does "Integral History." This is his secret sauce. In any given chapter, he’ll cover:
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- Economics: How did they eat? Who owned the land?
- Government: Who was in charge, and why did the people let them be?
- Religion: What did they fear? What did they hope for?
- Science/Art: What did they build? What did they discover?
- Philosophy: How did they justify the whole mess?
It’s exhaustive. It’s exhausting. But it’s beautiful.
Is It Still Relevant?
You might wonder why you should read a 90-year-old book when you have Wikipedia.
The answer is perspective. Wikipedia is a collection of facts; Our Oriental Heritage is a collection of insights. When Durant describes the fall of an empire, he’s looking for the biological and psychological causes. He looks at soil exhaustion. He looks at the decay of the family unit. He looks at the loss of a unifying faith.
Does that sound familiar? It should.
He’s writing to us. He’s warning us. He famously said that "the past is the present unrolled for understanding." When you read his chapters on the Han Dynasty, you start to see parallels to modern American governance. When you read about the religious fervor of the early Islamic conquests, you understand the geopolitics of the 21st century better than if you just watched the evening news.
How to Actually Read This Behemoth
Don't try to read it cover to cover in a week. You’ll fail. Your brain will melt.
Treat it like a reference book that happens to be written by a novelist. If you’re interested in Zen Buddhism, skip to the Japan section. If you want to understand why the Middle East is the "cradle of civilization," spend a month in the first 300 pages.
The prose is dense but rhythmic. He loves a good semicolon. He loves a witty epigram. He’ll drop a line like, "A nation is born stoic and dies epicurean," and you’ll have to put the book down for ten minutes just to think about it. That's the Durant experience. It’s slow-burn history.
Misconceptions to Clear Up
People think this is a "Western-centric" book because of the title. It's actually the opposite. The "Our" in the title is an invitation. He’s telling his Western audience: "This is YOUR heritage too. You aren't separate from the Chinese philosopher or the Egyptian architect. You are their heir."
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Another misconception is that it’s purely "secular." While Durant was a lapsed seminarian and a bit of a skeptic, he treats religion with immense respect. He doesn't think it's a "delusion." He thinks it’s the psychological cement of society. He treats the Buddha and Confucius with as much gravity as a scientist treats a law of physics.
Practical Steps for the Modern Reader
If you want to dive into Our Oriental Heritage, here is how to get the most out of it without getting overwhelmed.
1. Find an old copy.
Seriously. Go to a used bookstore. The modern reprints are often cheaply made. You want the old Simon & Schuster editions from the 40s or 50s. They have a specific smell—vanilla and old paper—that makes the reading experience feel more "authentic." Plus, they have the original maps and photo plates which are essential.
2. Focus on the "Summation" chapters.
At the end of his sections, Durant often writes a "Summary" or a "Conclusion" on the character of a civilization. If you are short on time, read these first. They contain the distilled philosophy of the entire preceding 200 pages.
3. Cross-reference with modern archaeology.
Since 1935, we’ve discovered a lot. We know more about the Indus Valley Civilization (Harappa and Mohenjo-daro) than Durant did. When you read those sections, have a tablet nearby to see what new ruins have been dug up since he wrote the text. It makes for a fascinating "then and now" study.
4. Use it for "Contextual Living."
Next time you go to a museum or watch a documentary on the Silk Road, read the corresponding chapter in Durant. It provides the "why" behind the "what."
Ultimately, Will Durant’s masterpiece isn’t just about the past. It’s a mirror. He’s showing us that every civilization, no matter how grand, is a temporary victory over chaos. It’s a reminder to appreciate the plumbing, the poetry, and the peace we currently enjoy, because, as the history of the East shows, nothing is guaranteed.
Start with the introduction. It’s only about 70 pages long, and it’s the best explanation of what "civilization" actually is that has ever been put to paper. Once you read that, you’ll be hooked. You might even find yourself buying the other ten volumes. Good luck with the shelf space.