Sixteen years after René Descartes'' death in Stockholm in 1650, a pious French ambassador exhumed the remains of the controversial philosopher to transport them back to Paris. Thus began a 350-year saga that saw Descartes'' bones traverse a continent, passing between kings, philosophers, poets, and painters. But as Russell Shorto shows in this deeply engaging book, Descartes'' bones also played a role in some of the most momentous episodes in history, which are also part of the philosopher''s metaphorical remains: the birth of science, the rise of democracy, and the earliest debates between reason and faith. Descartes'' Bones is a flesh-and-blood story about the battle between religion and rationalism that rages to this day.
