The Making of the Modern Mind: A Survey of the Intellectual Background of the Present Age

One of the best books I have ever read

All went well.

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Randall's book, written in 1940 as a college survey textbook, is a remarkable Eurocentric history, not only for its breadth of knowledge and depth of analysis. By freely expressing his opinions, the author enlivens the narrative, but his opinions are so judicious and even-handed that he never alienates the reader. He turns the history that I learned in school upside-down; here there are no warriors or kings to leave their mark, but rather the philosophers and the scientists create new vistas, and those creations that further the enrichment of the pre-WW II middle class endure. A warning: Randall presupposes in the reader a liberal familiarity with history, philosophy, and literature that probably very few college students of the 1990s have attained. A bonus of the book, though, is the mellifluous prose and the exquisite analogies, the best that I've read in a history since Gibbon. For example, the Old Testament "is a stern and austere code, more ready to burst into the flame of indignation than the warm glow of love." (page 42)

I had to take this for a college class. Very difficult to follow.

Excellent book, reviewed elsewhere. Perfect condition.

The book arrived in the time stated and in the condition stated. This is a old text book that I had in college and wanted to read again. It does help explain the backgound of how the modern mind developed due to the historical influences.

Great book.