The Swerve

Greenblatt’s account of Poggio Bracciolini’s 1417 recovery of Lucretius’s De rerum natura from a German monastery, and the argument that the poem’s atomism and refusal of an afterlife seeded the modern world.

Why it’s on the list: Named in the replies to @typesfast asking for the best history book you’ve read — a crowd-sourced list Kyle recovered by hand and saved.

Where I saw it: In the replies to @typesfast asking “What’s the best history book you’ve read?” (June 5, 2025). Kyle recovered the reply list by hand and saved it to his “Books To Read” Apple Note; the full transcribed list lives on What’s the best history book… (tweet).

Connections

• What’s the best history book… (tweet) — the thread this came out of; the full recovered list lives there.
• Republic of Letters — the portfolio idea this sits closest to: a book about book-hunters.