At the urging of a friend, I am about to undertake a complete reading of "The Story of Civilization" series.
Using Google.com, I found my way to this site and have also reviewed some interesting articles and on-line discussions regarding Durant that can be found elsewhere on the Net.
One of my concerns is to find more recently published books and/or series of books that can act as "companions" to Durant's work, both in terms of providing alternate analyses and also to act as supplements where modern research has shown that the "facts" as Durant reports them are now known to be somewhat different.
At present, I am working my way through Dr. Warren Carroll's masterful "History of Christendom" series, and I think this should help balance Durant where his sentiment tends to areligiosity or to outright anti-Catholicism. I am also working through Copleston's monumental "History of Philosophy" series, which efforts will likely provide similar balance.
Specifically, I have read several criticisms of Durant's first "Story" volume, "Our Oriental Heritage," which complain mostly about its being even more outdated than the other volumes in light of modern research. But what more modern book(s) would make a good stand-in and/or supplement to Durant's earlier work? Some book(s) from the Oxford History series?