Great books of the western world is a series of books originally published in the united states in 1952 by encyclopaedia britannica inc to present the great books in a 54 volume set the original editors had three criteria for including a book in the series drawn from western civilization the book must have been relevant to contemporary matters and not only important in its historical . Great books of the western world is one of the most acclaimed publishing feats of our time authoritative accurate and complete this collection represents the essential core of the western literary canon compiling 517 of the most significant achievements in literature history philosophy and science into a color coded set as handsome as it is affordable from the ancient classics to the . Great books of the western world 1 great books of the western world a collection of the greatest writings in western history author title list by volume volume 1 and 2 the syntopicon this unique guide enables you to investigate a particular idea such as courage or democracy and compare the perspectives of different authors volume 3 homer the iliad the odyssey volume 4 aeschylus c 525 456 . Great books of the western world item preview remove circle share or embed this item embed embed for wordpresscom hosted blogs and archiveorg item description tags want more advanced embedding details examples and help no favorite share flag flag this item for graphic violence graphic sexual content texts great books of the western world by hutchins robert maynard . Welcome to e books great books of the western world this is a collection of some of public domain books considered by many to represent the greatest works of western civilization this selection is loosely based upon encyclopedia britannicas great works of the western world series compiled by university of chicago president robert hutchins and philosopher mortimer adler an attempt has been