The Story of Civilization

Over four decades, husband and wife Will and Ariel Durant wrote The Story of Civilization, an eleven-volume history of Eastern and Western civilizations for general readers, weighted toward European history. The first volume, Our Oriental Heritage, covers Egypt and the Near East up to Alexander, along with India, China and Japan. Further volumes move through ancient Greece, Rome and early Christianity, the Middle Ages, the Italian Renaissance and the Reformation, and on to the eras of Louis XIV and Voltaire. Will alone is credited on the first six volumes; Ariel becomes co-author from The Age of Reason Begins. Rousseau and Revolution, volume ten, earned the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. The first volume appeared in 1935.

Elon Musk put it first in a list of audiobook recommendations on X, saying the series is long but well worth the time.