{"product_id":"the-swerve-how-the-world-became-modern-9780393343403","title":"The Swerve: How the World Became Modern","description":"In the winter of 1417, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late thirties plucked a very old manuscript off a dusty shelf in a remote monastery, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and ordered that it be copied. He was Poggio Bracciolini, the greatest book hunter of the Renaissance. His discovery, Lucretius' ancient poem \u003cem\u003eOn the Nature of Things, \u003c\/em\u003e had been almost entirely lost to history for more than a thousand years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e It was a beautiful poem of the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functions without the aid of gods, that religious fear is damaging to human life, that pleasure and virtue are not opposites but intertwined, and that matter is made up of very small material particles in eternal motion, randomly colliding and swerving in new directions. Its return to circulation changed the course of history. The poem's vision would shape the thought of Galileo and Freud, Darwin and Einstein, and--in the hands of Thomas Jefferson--leave its trace on the Declaration of Independence.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e From the gardens of the ancient philosophers to the dark chambers of monastic scriptoria during the Middle Ages to the cynical, competitive court of a corrupt and dangerous pope, Greenblatt brings Poggio's search and discovery to life in a way that deepens our understanding of the world we live in now.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"An intellectually invigorating, nonfiction version of a Dan Brown-like mystery-in-the-archives thriller.\" --\u003cem\u003eBoston Globe\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eGreenblatt, Stephen:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cstrong\u003eStephen Greenblatt\u003c\/strong\u003e (Ph.D. Yale) is Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. Also General Editor of \u003cem\u003eThe Norton Anthology of English Literature\u003c\/em\u003e, he is the author of eleven books, including \u003cem\u003eTyrant, \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve: The Story that Created Us, \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Swerve: How the World Became Modern\u003c\/em\u003e (winner of the 2011 National Book Award and the 2012 Pulitzer Prize); \u003cem\u003eShakespeare's Freedom\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eWill in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eHamlet in Purgatory\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eMarvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eLearning to Curse: Essays in Early Modern Culture\u003c\/em\u003e; and \u003cem\u003eRenaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare\u003c\/em\u003e. He has edited seven collections of criticism, including \u003cem\u003eCultural Mobility: A Manifesto\u003c\/em\u003e, and is a founding coeditor of the journal \u003cem\u003eRepresentations\u003c\/em\u003e. His honors include the MLA's James Russell Lowell Prize, for both \u003cem\u003eShakespearean Negotiations: The Circulation of Social Energy in Renaissance England\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Swerve\u003c\/em\u003e, the Sapegno Prize, the Distinguished Humanist Award from the Mellon Foundation, the Wilbur Cross Medal from the Yale University Graduate School, the William Shakespeare Award for Classical Theatre, the Erasmus Institute Prize, two Guggenheim Fellowships, and the Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of California, Berkeley. He was president of the Modern Language Association of America and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.","brand":"W. W. Norton \u0026 Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50591181504786,"sku":"9780393343403","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_6b5c981a-bb4f-4b94-9234-efe92ccfba5e.jpg?v=1732086300","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-swerve-how-the-world-became-modern-9780393343403","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}