title: Heroes of History: A Brief History of Civilization from Ancient Times to the Dawn of the Modern Age
author:  Will Durant 
description: In this collection of biographical and historical sketches drawn from an unfinished manuscript discovered two decades after his death, Will Durant celebrates historical figures whose examples demonstrate that humans can, "when sufficiently inspired, rise to levels of greatness with the gods themselves."
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Cover](images/ash.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Ashfall
  
  
    
  
  
  ### Mike Mullin
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Ashfall
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Mike Mullin
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Chapter 1
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.
  
  
  
  
  
  \- Will Durant
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I was home alone on that Friday evening. Those who survived know exactly which
  Friday I mean. Everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing, in
  the same way my parents remembered 9/11, but more so. Together we lost the old
  world, slipping from that cocoon of mechanized comfort into the hellish land
  we inhabit now. The pre-Friday world of school, cell phones, and refrigerators
  dissolved into this post-Friday world of ash, darkness, and hunger.
  
  
  But that Friday was pretty normal at first. I argued with Mom again after
  school. That was normal, too; we fought constantly. The topics were legion: my
  poor study habits, my video games, my underwear on the bathroom floor-
  whatever. I remember a lo