The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt | Book Club

Suggested by: Lily
Pages to read: 232
ISBN: 9780393343403 (Originally listed edition)
ISBN: 9780393083385 (Edition Eugene is using)

Eugene's review of the book (Blog Link, Click Here)

Community Guidelines (Meetup Link, Click Here)

All Upcoming event (Meetup Link, Click Here)

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2 - Methods of Improvement - 06/14/2025 = Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters by Brian Klaas
3 - Improving Society - 06/28/2025 = Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson
4 - How States Improve Society - 07/19/2025 = Seeing Like a State: Schemes to Improve Have Fail by James C. Scott
5 - Foreign Policy - 08/30/2025 = How States Think by John J. Mearsheimer, Sebastian Rosato

While reading the book, consider the below questions:
•What is the raison d’etre of the book? For what purpose did the author write the book? Why do people read this book?
•What are some limitations of the book?
•To whom would you suggest this book?
•What is a Swerve?
•What is On The Nature of Things?
•How as On The Nature of Things received?
•What effect did the Greco-Roman mythology have on society?
•What made a person’s identity?
•Who was Poggio?
•What did the Church think of curiosity?
•What happened to the pope that Poggio served?
•Why was Poggio interested in books?
•What happed in the Roman Empire was falling apart?
•Why should there a rule of complete silence? What was the consequence for not being silent?
•How did the Goths effect books?
•How to access a book protected by a Benedict librarian monk?
•Why did people become monks?
•What is a scriptorium?
•What kind of books were part of the ancient world? How did the form of the book change?
•How did monks copy books?
•How durable were the parchments used by the monks?
•Who was Epicurus?
•What threatened a book?
•What did authors earn from their books?
•What is the purpose of the Museum?
•What happened to Hypatia?
•What influence did the pope have?
•What was the Bugiale?

Your questions are important and will take priority. If you have questions about the book's content or related ideas, either let me know what your questions are or raise them during the discussion.