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Why it matters
It argues that rediscovered classical ideas helped reshape European thought.
A celebrated work
The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
Stephen Greenblatt2011 selection · Nonfiction
The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
The story of a Renaissance manuscript hunter's recovery of Lucretius's long-lost poem On the Nature of Things.
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Read this if…
You enjoy intellectual history told as literary detective work.
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