The Swerve

Last night the National Book Award for non-fiction was awarded to Stephen Greenblatt for his book, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern. The book is about the poem "On the Nature of Things", written by Lucretius over two thousand years ago. It was then lost for 1,000 years, and then rediscovered by Poggio Bracciolini in 1417.

I read the book last month, and am skeptical of Greenblatt's thesis that the rediscovery of this poem sparked the renaissance, but it is an incredibly interesting story all the same.

Here is an interview with Greenblatt where he discusses the book.