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Book Review of The Swerve: How the World Became Modern

The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
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Helpful Score: 1


This is one of the best books that I have read in a long time. I thought from the title and commentary that it was something like a Malcolm Gladwell book, but Greenblatt is very careful not to give any more biographical history than is on the record (his main character from the Renaissance, Poggio, "may have" done many things, and keeps to the limited texts (as befitting a Shakespearian scholar). "Swerve" refers to the way atoms move in the Lucretian/Epicurian cosmogony, although Greenblatt uses it also as a fulcrum of history and historical thought.